UPDATE 1-Japan's D&M sells ReplayTV business to DirecTV

(Updates with details, background)

TOKYO Dec 13 (Reuters) - Japan's D&M Holdings Inc 6735.T said on Thursday it had sold its ReplayTV business, which develops software for digital video recorders, to DirecTV (DTV.O) of the United States for an undisclosed sum.

D&M, 49 percent-owned by RHJ International (RHJI.BR), the holding company of U.S. buyout fund Ripplewood, bought the ReplayTV business along with portable music player brand Rio in 2003 for about $36 million.

D&M sold Rio's technology assets in 2005 to Sigmatel SGTL.O, exiting the MP3 digital audio player market.

The company said the sale of ReplayTV would allow it to focus resources on its other businesses, which include high-end audio brands Denon, Marantz and McIntosh.

D&M restructured the ReplayTV business, stopping production of hardware to focus on software. It currently supplies software for recording of TV programmes and video content on personal computers.

After the announcement, shares of D&M closed the morning session down 1.6 percent at 437 yen. The benchmark Nikkei average .N225 fell 1.2 percent. (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka and Nathan Layne; Editing by Malcolm Whittaker)