ASUSTeK and Gigabyte today announced plans to form a joint-venture involving its motherboard and video card businesses. The resulting company, which will operate under the Gigabyte brand, will become official on January 1, 2007. Gigabyte will hold 51% of the joint-venture with ASUSTeK controlling the rest. The deal will allow the mobo makers to fend off competition from other top-tiers ECS, MSI and Foxconn (Hon Hai).