May 13, 2008

Pioneer Closing Two Plasma TV Plants In Plasma Biz Restructure, Posts Loss For 2007

Pioneer has announced that two plasma TV plants will close in Japan in a bid to restructure the company's struggling plasma business. Whether or not this means 2000 jobs will be lost remains to be seen, but the plants located in Yamanashi and Kagoshima will close, while Pioneer's third domestic plant Shizuoka plant will remain open as the company's plasma TV production hub. Pioneer also announced that they'll be partnering with Sharp in the European market to produce LCD TV's; it looks like Sharp will be supplying the LCD panels and Pioneer looks to re-enter the LCD biz in August of this year. Details are a little vague at the moment, but this confirms that Pioneer will be cutting jobs in order to restructure their plasma biz, a rumor we first heard about last night.

The company also announced their 2007 fiscal year earnings this morning, posting a 17.9 billion Yen loss, mainly thanks to the steep cost of the plasma restructuring. The total cost to restructure Pioneer's plasma biz will be about 230 billion Yen by its completion March 2010, with 150 billion Yen to be spent in the next fiscal year ending March 2009.

Via Impress