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Gadgets Panasonic to Axe 10,000 Workers by the End of March
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - November 14, 2012 8:29 AM

9 comment(s) - last by semiconshawn.. on Nov 15 at 8:31 AM

Panasonic focuses on 5% margins for all business groups

Panasonic's financial future isn't as secure as the company would like. Panasonic's finance chief said this week that about 1/5 of the company's 88 business units are losing money. The finance chief went on to say that only of those 88 units meet the company's target of at least a 5% operating margin.

Panasonic is set to make moves to address the shortcomings in some of its business units with another round of significant layoffs. The company intends to lay off 10,000 workers by the end of March 2013. Panasonic already cut roughly 36,000 workers during its last business year, although some of the jobs Panasonic eliminated were through the sale of businesses.

"Our new boss has said businesses must achieve at least a 5 percent operating profit target within three years," Kawai said, referring to Kazuhiro Tsuga, who took over as company president in June. "But we won't wait that long to tackle units that need to be dealt with."

Panasonic will begin selling off other business segments and closing some of its businesses as early as next year. Panasonic's Hideaki Kawai said that the company intends to earn a group operating profit of at least $2.52 billion in its fiscal year ending March of 2014.

Panasonic warned recently that it would lose close to $10 billion in its fiscal year ending in March of 2013. Panasonic announced $5.5 billion in losses during Q3 of 2011 alone, so things appear to be getting better.

Source: Reuters

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RE: Shame

By TakinYourPoints on 11/14/2012 5:13:22 PM , Rating: 2

Pioneer stopped making plasmas a few years ago, they couldn't sell enough to the high-high end to make that part of their business make sense. I have the last-gen Pioneer Kuro Elite that they made, still one of the best displays around.

You're right though, Panasonic makes some of the best plasmas, far better than Samsung's. The GT and VT series have arguably the best picture quality around right now, very easy recommendations if you can afford them.

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