Sony, a major maker of consumer electronics, will acquire two million shares in Justsystem for 1.27 billion yen. The two firms said that they would jointly develop software for a digital home network.

Sony has recently strengthened its personal computer and telecommunications equipment businesses, and its Vaio series personal computers are in strong demand.

Justsystem is the maker the well-known "Ichitaro" Japanese-language word-processing software for notebook computers, which competes in Japan with Microsoft Corp's Word.

Payment for the acquisition would be made on July 22, Justsystem said.Sony Corp vice president Sunobu Horigome told a news conference Justsystem would become an effective partner of Sony for pushing its home digital audio visual projects.

The two companies declined give further details about possible newproducts and the timing of their introduction.Horigome said Sony had no plans to become involved in management of Justsystem's current business.

Justsystem's president Kazunori Ukigawa said there was no possibility of Sony further boosting its shareholding in the firm for the time being.He added that the fund injection by Sony would not affect Justsystem's business result estimates for the current fiscal year.

The company reported a parent current loss of 5.19 billion yen in the year that ended on March 31. It has forecast a parent current profit of 231 million yen for the current business year.

Justsystem's total number of issued shares would be 30.01 million, from 28.01 million as of March 31, and its capital would be 4.87 billion yen, from a previous 4.23 billion yen.

After spending 84 million yen to issue the new shares, 1.19 billion yen would be used as funds for research and development for the digital home network, Justsystem said.