Pioneer to exit TV business

[imcarthur]

Pioneer will no longer manufacture televisions and plans to spin off its DVD player business into a joint venture with Sharp, according to a report in Japan's Nikkei newspaper.

The company is reportedly exiting the TV business rather than continue to incur losses in that division. This latest report comes a few months after Pioneer announced it anticipated huge losses at the end of its fiscal year in March and plans to lay off 2,000 workers.

Pioneer had built itself into a widely respected maker of plasma televisions, but last March said it would not make the plasma panels anymore because of skyrocketing costs and mounting losses in its TV division. It tapped Panasonic to provide the panels instead, but that deal appears now short-lived. Another clue this was coming: Pioneer showed no specific models of TVs at CES last month.

Pioneer is not alone among TV makers losing money. Everyone from Panasonic to Samsung to Sony is facing layoffs and large quarterly losses.

Update: Pioneer said it won't comment on the rumor, but released this statement: "We have publicly announced that we are actively evaluating our business. We started announcing changes in March 2008 to increase efficiencies of our business operations. We are still in that process but do not have any further announcements at this time."

Source: CNET

Ian

[speeder]

That sucks since don't they make the best 1080 plasma around?

[holtjv]

I'm watching my new 50" Kuro right now. Fantastic box. In fact, just had the tv guy here to put the satellite box and blu-ray in another room with an rf basestation. Now the wall is very clean--just the tv.

[Moses]

I have a Pioneer Kuro plasma. AMAZING picture. This is bad news for the industry.

[Steve Carlton]

Too bad if true. They make some of the best stuff.

[imcarthur]

The word from the street has US Pioneer dropping plasma & projector prices repeatedly & dealing them with Blue-Ray players for cheap.

Ian

[Moses]

Wow. Time to buy!

[imcarthur]

Only if dealers buy the deals. Times are tough out there & dealers have their pick of hungry vendors (like me ). Thankfully video is a very smart part of what I sell since it has always been low margin with a very short shelf life & a very competitive marketplace.

Ian

[lowyder993s]

This really sux...I bought their PDP-50 nearly 11 years ago...cost 10k at that time. But...it's still hanging on the wall, nary a problem. 11 years...1 plasma...not many things these days last 11 years.

[87coupe]

Pioneer plasmas are/were manufactured by Panasonic.

[imcarthur]

It is now official . . .

Pioneer Electronics will exit the TV business by March 2010, cut 10,000 jobs worldwide and center on car electronics and other home electronics businesses.

Source http://www.twice.com/article/CA6636950.html

Ian