Panasonic to exit plasma TV panel business by end-March 2014

r32

http://www.reuters.com/article/2 ... USBRE99801720131009

By Reiji Murai
TOKYO | Tue Oct 8, 2013 11:19pm EDT

(Reuters) - Panasonic Corp will pull out of the plasma television panel business by the end of the financial year to March 2014, sources familiar with the situation told Reuters, marking a key milestone in the long-term decline of Japan's TV industry.

Panasonic had been widely expected to back out of the unprofitable business, but the exit comes sooner than predicted and underlines President Kazuhiro Tsuga's determination to weed out weak operations as he focuses on higher-margin products to end years of losses at the consumer electronics conglomerate.

Panasonic's TV division has been a major contributor to the electronics company's combined $15 billion (9 billion pounds) net loss in its two latest financial years. Its TV business posted an operating loss of 88.5 billion yen ($913 million) in the last financial year.

With the closure of its sole plasma panel factory in western Japan, Panasonic will book an impairment loss of more than 40 billion yen on the last remaining factory building in operation, the sources added. The company set aside 120 billion yen to cover restructuring costs at the start of the current financial year.

The move also signals the demise in Japan of a technology in which TV makers once invested heavily but has now been overtaken by advances in the liquid crystal display (LCD) business. Plasma display TVs accounted for less than 6 percent of global shipments in 2012, compared with 87 percent for LCD TVs, according to research firm DisplaySearch.

Squeezed by the strong yen in recent years, Japan's TV makers have also lost their innovative edge against nimbler rivals such as South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, with deep resources to spend on research and development.

Sony Corp, Panasonic and Sharp Corp combined had a less than 20 percent share of the worldwide flat panel TV market by revenue. Samsung had a 27.7 percent share, and LG Electronics Inc had 15 percent.

Panasonic said in a statement on Wednesday that it continued to consider various options for the plasma display panel business but that nothing had been decided yet.

The several hundred employees in Panasonic's plasma operation are expected to be deployed to other parts of the company, the sources said.

The move is in line with the strategy adopted by company President Tsuga since he took charge in June 2012. Panasonic is trying to engineer a turnaround away from low-margin consumer electronics goods to products catering to automakers and other business clients.

Tsuga has warned that he would weed out any division that fails to meet a 5 percent operating margin goal within three years. Non-core assets like its healthcare unit are also being sold as he overhauls the company.

Panasonic agreed last month to sell the healthcare business, which makes blood sugar monitoring devices and electronic record-keeping systems, to U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co in a $1.67 billion deal.

Shares in Panasonic were down 0.2 percent at 913 yen in morning trade in Tokyo, in line with a 0.3 percent slip in the benchmark Nikkei average.

MingSir

Oops !

LiquidMR

This means that VT60 and ZT60 are among the last batches of Plasma TV. AV enthusiasts have to opt for OLED in the near future then.

mclaren

有買就快手喇！

dlcc

【日本新聞網10月9日消息】

松下電器公司今日作出決定，在2013年財政年度，停止面向等離子電視機的液晶板的生產，並將最終關閉和出售生產液晶板的工廠。

松下電器公司預計，到今年3月為止，該公司已經出現了7500億日元的經營赤字，而等離子電視機的事業惡化是導致公司經營赤字擴大的元兇。

松下電器公司已經中止了等離子電視機的研發，並決定在明年停止銷售。為此，松下電器公司決定在今年度停止在兵庫縣尼崎工廠的生產，並最終將工廠出售。

松下電器公司已經開始與過去的競爭對手的索尼公司合作，研發高畫質、省電力的有機EL電視機。

Frisby75

Just visited relative in the U.S., they brought a brand new 65ZT60.   

The TV set is made in Mexico.  U.S. price before tax is about US$3,900 if I recall correct.

It has a lot of apps, but of course all are not very useful.   The 65ZT60 does not have a front facing camera which is good.

The picture quality is  v e r y, v e r y , v e r y , v e r y, v e r y excellent of course.

It is rather strong in depth and color is excellent, and having impression of crystal clear image.

Personally I think it is 170% better than my VT50 (yet it costed almost HK$50k or US$6.3K.)

It there is a ZT selling in HK for US$3.8K/HK$30K there will be no hestiation I will get one.