Sharp mulls mass layoffs amid $1.28bn loss fears
Price-fix settlement kicks LCD biz while it's down
Sharp may consider laying off thousands of workers and flogging some of its Tokyo offices as losses swell.
The Japanese firm is likely to announce net losses of around ¥100bn ($1.28bn) in the second quarter as its settlement in the US LCD cartel case adds to its woes, spurring the firm to consider restructures, daily business newspaper Nikkei reports.
"We are considering various measures to tackle the difficult situation, and will disclose the details when it is finalized," Sharp said in a statement to Reuters.
The company's shares fell 5 per cent yesterday on the Nikkei report.
Sharp posted a record loss of ¥376bn ($4.8bn) for the last fiscal year in March, mainly on poor consumer demand for LCD TVs and panels. The firm is attempting to diversify its screen-making capabilities away from tellies and into smartphones and tablets to improve sales.
Sharp has also dumped chunks of its TV business, handing over 46.5 per cent of it to Foxconn owners Hon Hai Precision and more to Toppan Printing and Dai Nippon Printing. Hon Hai also spent ¥66.9bn on a 9.9 per cent stake in Sharp itself. ®
COMMENTS
The TV business is brutal
It has been for years with big players making losses even as the sales were booming. Does anyone know if even Samsung is losing money on TVs? Last time I looked at their annual report it was hard to separate out the TV business from the other electronics products.
The competition has been so great that the Chinese brands haven't been able to make a big push into the market although we may see that one day. Foxconn is probably going to end up doing all the manufacturing for the Japanese brands so they make make a big percentage of the TVs even without owning the brands. [For import duty reasons (and to a lesser degree shipping costs) assembly of most TVs sold in Europe is done in Europe although the panels are typically shipped in from Korea or Taiwan.]
The competition is good for the consumer though, at least in the short term
Re: The TV business is brutal
I'm not absolutely certain but I think that is the LCD display/panel manufacturing part being spun out (panels for TVs, phones, tablets) rather than the finished TVs part. It is also hard to get a look at how the combined TV panel and finished TVs combine in financial terms.
Re: The TV business is brutal
Samsung spun off its LCD TV division in February of this year.
http://www.techradar.com/news/television/samsung-spins-off-lcd-tv-business-1064682
