Panasonic announces 15,000 layoffs
Japanese tech giant cuts staff amid major losses caused by global downturn.
The world’s largest-maker of plasma TVs says it will shut 14 plants overseas, and 13 in Japan over the coming year.
Shrivelling profits
On Tuesday, electronics rival Hitachi repeated its forecast that it would post a $7.8bn loss for the year – the biggest-ever for a Japanese manufacturer.
Another Japanese tech giant, Sony, last week said its profit had shrivelled by 95 per cent to $115.6m in the third quarter.
It is predicting a loss of around $180m for the full fiscal year, its first in more than a decade, largely because of huge losses in its core electronics sector.
The company has already announced plans to cut thousands of jobs.
Toshiba Corp last week reported a net loss of $1.34bn for the October-December quarter, on the back of falling demand for flash memory chips and other gadgets.
It expects a net loss of $3.1bn for the fiscal year.