Panasonic Forecasts Staggering $10B Annual Loss

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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It’s been a really tough year all around for Japanese electronics companies; especially hard hit has been Panasonic. The electronics company is projecting a loss of $10.2 Billion dollars for the coming year, triggering a restructuring of the company.

Panasonic will join Japanese rivals Sony and Sharp in trying to revamp and restructure its business to achieve profitability again.
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I'm guessing the CEO's didn't loose a dime, and probably on the contrary, gave themselves Millions despite this performance.
 
SonicTron said:
How does a company lose 10 BILLION dollars in a year :eek:
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RTFA :D More than a third of it is acquisition related expenses. With some more due to acquisition related restructuring, and finally a big chunk is due to South Korea's Samsung & LG.
 
I freaking love my Kuro so I hope they don't cut funding for the TV and displays division.
 
Plasmas were not that hot at all in 2011, and I sold a few, but not as much as 2010. 2005-2010 were their peak years, now they need something to outdo cheaper, better LCD systems.
 
fuck Panasonic i hope they go bankrupt after the pos tv they sold me in 09 that now looks worst then a cheep lcd tv the blacks are so bright. i loved my tv then after about a yer it stated to look like a pos at night and now i have no blacks they are so bad at night and is worse then my 2005 lcd tv it replaced
 
tunatime said:
fuck Panasonic i hope they go bankrupt after the pos tv they sold me in 09 that now looks worst then a cheep lcd tv the blacks are so bright. i loved my tv then after about a yer it stated to look like a pos at night and now i have no blacks they are so bad at night and is worse then my 2005 lcd tv it replaced
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That bad huh? I'm paranoid my LG tv will be crapping out soon now, but it's relatively new still.
 
Markdek said:
I'm guessing the CEO's didn't loose a dime, and probably on the contrary, gave themselves Millions despite this performance.
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Depends. Are they a Japanese company? Didn't the head of Japan's side of Nintendo bow his head in shame and not get a bonus and got a big pay cut because of dismal returns?
 
I have a Panasonic HDTV I bought 4 years ago. It has the IPS-Alpha panel. Wonderful picture, still flawless. Wonder why they don't promote this great panel and build some nice monitor/tv combos out of it. Maybe they have the same kind of problems as Sony. Poor leadership, poor marketing. And of course, the China problem.

After the Chinese finish off the Japanese companies they will target the Koreans. There will be no survivors.
 
I don't get how companies loose this much money and not notice ahead of time so they can act on it before it gets to this point.

If I noticed that after a month I have less money in the bank than what I had a month ago, and I did not make any out of the ordinary expenses, then I'd start looking at the numbers and see what's costing me so much and see what I can fix. Maybe my hydro bill is way out of line, or I'm going over my data plan and my phone bill is like 300/mo instead of 50/mo. Then I'll cut back on the cause, and regain my "profit". Why do companies not analyze their cost/gains in a similar way from a month to month basis?
 
I'm quite happy with my Panasonic IPS monitor.
...any my company deals with Panasonic for aircraft electrical harnesses... a whole lot.
Any business nerds know what this is?
V-shaped performance improvement
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I love both of my Panasonic plasmas, couldn't ask for better panels, these give off such a crisp picture I couldn't be happier.

I also really like my Panasonic receiver.

I hope they don't go under, they constantly battle with Samsung to give us better panels :(. Oh how does freakn LG stay afloat? Had a LCD and a LCD monitor from them, both a ginormous over priced POS (and seems to be general concensus).
 
Red Squirrel said:
I don't get how companies loose this much money and not notice ahead of time so they can act on it before it gets to this point.

If I noticed that after a month I have less money in the bank than what I had a month ago, and I did not make any out of the ordinary expenses, then I'd start looking at the numbers and see what's costing me so much and see what I can fix. Maybe my hydro bill is way out of line, or I'm going over my data plan and my phone bill is like 300/mo instead of 50/mo. Then I'll cut back on the cause, and regain my "profit". Why do companies not analyze their cost/gains in a similar way from a month to month basis?
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Operating a company is very difficult in the long term. That is why very old companies are so rare. Operating a company like Panasonic in the current business environment must be insanely difficult. I'm sure they are continuously analyzing their business model long term, short term, and points in between.

There is no real correlation to managing your household expenses. Imagine if every time you cut an expense your income was reduced. That's what it is like in business. Stop selling a high volume but unprofitable product and company revenue plummets. Cut your R&D budget and your companies long term survival probability plummets. These decisions are a lot harder than you think.
 
fore1337 said:
I'm quite happy with my Panasonic IPS monitor.
...any my company deals with Panasonic for aircraft electrical harnesses... a whole lot.
Any business nerds know what this is?
V-shaped performance improvement
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I'm not business major but I'd say "V" stands for "one year you are in black, next one in deep red, then next one in black again". Makes sense?
 
Greene420 said:
Plasmas were not that hot at all in 2011, and I sold a few, but not as much as 2010. 2005-2010 were their peak years, now they need something to outdo cheaper, better LCD systems.
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significantly increasing pixel density would be a good place to start a comeback
 
Greene420 said:
Plasmas were not that hot at all in 2011, and I sold a few, but not as much as 2010. 2005-2010 were their peak years, now they need something to outdo cheaper, better LCD systems.
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Plasma already outdoes cheaper LCD systems. Sounds like you are mis-marketing them...
Lorien said:
I freaking love my Kuro so I hope they don't cut funding for the TV and displays division.
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That was Pioneer. They stopped making them. My parents loved it, too.
jstnomega said:
significantly increasing pixel density would be a good place to start a comeback
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What for? HD is not getting any higher.

LCDs were designed for stationary computer screens and have been pushed to their limits, but can never equal the amount of colors, motion or contrast of a plasma display. Only real upside to LCDs are that they can be cheaper and they use less power.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
LCDs were designed for stationary computer screens and have been pushed to their limits, but can never equal the amount of colors, motion or contrast of a plasma display. Only real upside to LCDs are that they can be cheaper and they use less power.
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Plasma is EoL. LCD is going to be going to much much longer. With new tech like blue phase they are only going to get better and cheaper. Those limits are only around until new tech comes to push them more, just nobody is developing plasma anymore.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
LCDs were designed for stationary computer screens and have been pushed to their limits, but can never equal the amount of colors, motion or contrast of a plasma display. Only real upside to LCDs are that they can be cheaper and they use less power.
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the difference these days in power usage from a stand alone LCD 240hz vs a Plasma is pretty negligible, but with LED you start seeing the benefits of power saving. I don't think that LED will surpass Plasma panels in image quality but are fairly close, the price isn't though.

I'll continue to buy high end plasma over LED, cheaper, better picture, serve as a room heater :D and gives me decent life.

Too bad Pioneer got out of the plasma making business, those Kuros were a beast.
 
sleepeeg3 said:
That was Pioneer. They stopped making them. My parents loved it, too.
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Yeah, but after Pioneer stopped making TV's in '09 Panasonic bought the patents to their tech, specially the Magnesium Oxide crystals on the phosphor layer which gave them those oh so magnificent black levels. So Panasonic are the only hope of bringing that tech back into the consumer space.
 
DeathPrincess said:
LCD is going to be going to much much longer. With new tech like blue phase they are only going to get better and cheaper. Those limits are only around until new tech comes to push them more, just nobody is developing plasma anymore.
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LCD technology has been around since the 60's, despite being marketed as "new" technology. The major problems are color limitation and contrast ratio. LCD TVs are limited to 16.7million colors and would need to come in expensive 10-bit panels to match plasma. The contrast ratio problem likely can not be overcome and LCDs will be replaced by OLED. OLED offers similar contrast ratio as plasma and will eventually replace both technologies.

Lorien said:
Yeah, but after Pioneer stopped making TV's in '09 Panasonic bought the patents to their tech, specially the Magnesium Oxide crystals on the phosphor layer which gave them those oh so magnificent black levels. So Panasonic are the only hope of bringing that tech back into the consumer space.
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Cool, I am glad their development tech continued on. Panasonic had the only worthy competitor at the time of the Kuro.
 
Real sad news.

Personally I have been more than happy with everything Panasonic I have ever owned. Be it television, VCR, projector or camera equipment. It is basically my favorite company for consumer electronics. In my experience, if you purchase from their top of the line segment, you are bound to be satisfied. Which has not been the case for me with some of their biggest competitors, such as SONY.
 
Impossibru! I <3 Panasonic, I just bought a their HD camcorder this year and its perfect. I also plan on buying a Panny plasma this year or next. Sounds like they have piss poor management as their products rock.
 
Markdek said:
I'm guessing the CEO's didn't loose a dime, and probably on the contrary, gave themselves Millions despite this performance.
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Japanese CEOs generally don't do that. Something will probably be announced soon, especially since the Olympus scandal is starting to die down.

Anyhow, the biggest problem that Sony, Panasonic and to an extent Samsung now have is that people do not see the benefits of paying more for their TVs anymore due to China's race to the bottom on price. They may understand that the name brand sets offer 3d, or a better refresh, but on the other hand they can buy a offbrand set just as big, and one for the bedroom and kid's room for the same price. Something has to give, and Japan can't beat China at price. They all eventually will have to get out of the market, or focus on one part of it.
 
wiseoracle said:
Panasonic made the glass screens for Pioneer. Pioneer provided the video processing at the time.
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And Panasonic purchased Pioneer's IP and hired some of their engineers when Pioneer got out of the business. They do not use the Kuro name however, it's Neo Plasma and some of the latest Viera's utilize some of the tech.
 
All I know is that my Pio (5070) has been off less than eight hours in the last five years and it's the best tv,
quality wise, that Iv'e ever owned. So if Pannys got what Pio's had, then thats what I'll be buying next. Does anybody remember the first Pannys that were 480p, 42 inch and 15,000 dollars ?
 
SonicTron said:
How does a company lose 10 BILLION dollars in a year :eek:
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They pass loser executives from company to company and they nearly bankrupt them and get the boot. Off to the next company to get paid several million and nearly bankrupt them also. ;)
 
TheArTcher said:
I have a Panasonic HDTV I bought 4 years ago. It has the IPS-Alpha panel. Wonderful picture, still flawless. Wonder why they don't promote this great panel and build some nice monitor/tv combos out of it. Maybe they have the same kind of problems as Sony. Poor leadership, poor marketing. And of course, the China problem.

After the Chinese finish off the Japanese companies they will target the Koreans. There will be no survivors.
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Same here; I bought my wife a 32" IPS HDTV for Christmas. This is the FIRST LCD TV that can touch the 42" Panasonic Plasma we had as far as picture quality.
I would LOVE to buy a 32" IPS set for gaming! :D
 
sleepeeg3 said:
LCD technology has been around since the 60's, despite being marketed as "new" technology.
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Think you have that backwards. The first commercial use of Plasma displays have been around since the 60s for use in situation where a "flat panel" display was essential. This was primarily aviation. These were single color data displays. The company was eventually bought out by Panasonic who continued to develop the technology to bring high resolution plasma displays to the masses.
This was long before the advent of LCD, which was also invented by an American company and licensed to Sharp. I was trained on the first commercial Sharp 3 panel LCD projector back around 1990 I believe.
 
Ya know it really seems the same thing is happening to the Japanese electronics companies that happened to the American ones 30 years ago. Back then it was that Japanese TV were cheaper and better. People chose Panasonic and Sony over Zenith and RCA. Now the Japanese are faced with competition from China. I would NOT say that what China is producing is better than what Japan is; but they cost is way lower. Japan is having a hard time competing because they have to pay their working a descent wage unlike China.
 
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