Sharp has agreed to pay $198.5 million to Dell and two other companies that filed a lawsuit regarding its TFT business in North America and Europe. It's unclear at present which companies are involved and what the lawsuit pertained to, but it seems likely that it's related to the accusations that Toshiba, Samsung, LG, Sharp, and Chungwa Picture Tubes colluded to fix LCD prices. Last week, Toshiba was found liable for $87 million (a figure that may rise to $261 million under US law) in damages for price fixing, but vowed to fight the ruling. Sharp, however, says that after "comprehensively considering the American civil justice system," it judged that "agreeing to settle is the best possible course of action."

Although Dell is the only company named, AT&T and Nokia both started price-fixing litigation against Sharp, making them likely contenders for a share in the settlement fund. Sharp says that it plans to realize the loss in its fourth quarter of fiscal 2013, which ends in March 2014.