Panasonic Posts $4.2 Billion Loss - Cuts 15,000 Jobs, Closes 27 Plants

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admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
In 2008 Panasonic posted heavy quarterly losses and lowered annual forcast. Last week they announced and executed massive layoffs. Now, the company again says it will begin round 2 and cut 15,000 jobs (a full 5% of its workforce) and close 27 plants worldwide (13 in Japan). The job cuts will be completed by March 2010 and half of these will be in Japan. The world's largest maker of plasma displays posted a net loss of $709 million dollars for the fourth quarter 2008. For the fiscal year (ending March 31) they revised their numbers to indicate a net loss of $4.2 billion (yes, with a 'b') dollars.


Discuss "Panasonic Posts $4.2 Billion Loss - Cuts 15,000 Jobs, Closes 27 Plants" here. Read the article.
 
Pyrrho

Pyrrho

Audioholic Ninja
That is too bad. Panasonic has been making mostly high value products for years.
 
davidtwotrees

davidtwotrees

Audioholic General
Geezo. I bought a 42" plasma and a 32" lcd from Panasonic in 2007. Not sure what else I could do for these guys...............
 
Geno

Geno

Senior Audioholic
Ah, the race to the bottom...

Looks like those never-ending price cuts in Plasmas & LCDs is finally taking its toll. I had a feeling the constantly shrinking margins in these products was too good to be true. Like everyone else, I liked the way those prices kept falling, and it looks like it's hit bottom.:(
 
lsiberian

lsiberian

Audioholic Overlord
Yeah I love Panasonic. They make great products. I still remember my first skip free discman. It was so good I could drop it and it would keep playing.
 
A

A.T. Baker

Audiophyte
Panasonic's Problems

My first job out of college was to go to work for Panasonic at the Baltimore distribution Center. After spending 3 years with them, I went to work for one of their independent distributors in Baltimore. All total, I was involved with Panasonic's products for over 11 years. That was back in the early 70's to mid 80's.

I was saddened to hear aboout the news that Panasonic had lost money over the last few months and years. Clearly, the economy is a key factor in affecting sales of their products. As an observer, I think Panasonic has made some product errors that have cost them market share.

(1) Some ten years ago, they decided to pull out of the cellular phone business. Today, Telecom and cellphone is a huge industry, which they could be participating in. (2) They were slow to adapt to the digital change in products, from the analog products they were experienced in. (3) Their Technics product line was among HiFi's best, and they should have reduced their product line, offering more digital products. (4) They made significant investments in Plasma TV production, which has proved to be a bad decision. Plasma HDTV's suffer from "ghosting" their screen displays, and do not seem to have the clarity that LCD or LED screens have.
 
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mike c

mike c

Audioholic Warlord
they must survive until i can afford a panny plasma!
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
A.T. Baker said:
Plasma HDTV's suffer from "ghosting" their screen displays, and do not seem to have the clarity that LCD or LED screens have.
Ghosting? You might be thinking of static retention, but that problem is minimal on Plasma displays in the current market. I also disagree about "clarity" compared to LCD televisions. LED sets are still LCD, they just use a different backlighting method than what's marketed as LCD. Plasma's have higher contrast ratio, more accurate representation of natural color, and better black levels. Since both markets have 1080p sets I don't think one can be sharper than another really.
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
I hate to see any company going through hard times as it always effects the ordinary "joe" and screws up their life royally. My first HT receiver is a Technics SA-DX940 which I was happy with. It still works but now has been relegated to the family room as a stereo receiver. We had some Panasonic cordless phones and finally had to throw them out. They were over 15 years old, dropped many a time before they gave up the ghost. I hope Panasonic can turn it around.
 
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droht

droht

Full Audioholic
(4) They made significant investments in Plasma TV production, which has proved to be a bad decision. Plasma HDTV's suffer from "ghosting" their screen displays, and do not seem to have the clarity that LCD or LED screens have.
Maybe one of their issues is overcoming the under-informed consumer. This post would back that up.
 
6L6X4

6L6X4

Audioholic
As manufacturers get shaken out by the bad economy, competition will be reduced eventually leading to higher prices. This is bad news for all us consumers.

I read something a year ago where Pioneer was in equally dire straights. Sad...
 
TheFactor

TheFactor

Audioholic Field Marshall
I guess I bought my 65v10 just in time :) I sure hope Panasonic can pull threw these rough times because they do make a great product and from what i've read have excellent customer service to .
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
Well...what are the new numbers? Has the trend continued, or has Panasonic turned it around?

And, no, I will NOT Google it. :D
 

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