OSAKA, March 18 – Japanese consumer electronics giant Panasonic Corp. is considering gradually withdrawing from plasma television business as part of ongoing efforts to restructure the company, China’s Xinhua news agency said quoting local media reports on Monday.
Panasonic is likely to post a more than 700 billion yen (about US$7.37 billion) after-tax loss for its consolidated earnings for the full year to March, while drastically cutting the personnel at its headquarters, including early retirement and transfers to subsidiaries, and selling assets to strengthen its finance, according to the media including the daily Mainichi Shimbun.
The reports said that the troubled consumer electronics maker would end plasma TV panel production, which has been continued at the Amagasaki plant in the western Japanese prefecture of Hyogo by the end of fiscal 2014 at the earliest, the reports said. The Osaka-headquartered company, currently struggling with a shrinking TV market in the country, is expected to officially announce the downsizing measure with other restructuring plans later this month.
BERNAMA
