Pioneer eyes withdrawing from flat-screen TV business
TOKYO —
Pioneer Corp is considering pulling the plug on its loss-making flat-screen TV business as slowing demand amid the global recession leaves little room for one of the company’s mainstay operations to recover, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday. The company is expected to announce in a medium-term management plan to be compiled by the end of this month that it will withdraw from the business and instead focus on in-car audiovisual products for its survival, the sources said.
Pioneer had been restructuring its troubled plasma television operations, shedding hundreds of jobs and shutting a domestic plant last year.
Pioneer will also spin off its loss-making DVD player operations to a new company to be set up with Sharp Corp this year.
Pioneer is expected to post a consolidated net loss of more than 100 billion yen for the current year to March, up from the 78 billion yen loss it had earlier forecast.
Wire reports
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some14some
Pioneer goes flat...instead focus on in-car audiovisual products for its survival... car audiovisual products? when automakers are visually worried about their own future?
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cwhite
forget LCD, go next gen SSD home cinema and automobiles
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papasmurfinjapan
Pioneer have, for many years, been the cream of the crop in the plasma TV industry. Their "kuro" plasmas are considered the industry benchmark against which everything else is compared. Their DVD players also consistently rank as the best quality/value for money.
Their troubles started over a few years ago when they started outsourcing their plasma panels to Panasonic, and with Panasonic and Hitachi's aggressive pricing strategies, Pioneer just can't keep up.
Still, it is a shame to see the best in the industry knocked out for consistently providing top-end products that AV fans drool over.
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