Toshiba to stop making TVs, more job cuts in cards

(THE ASAHI SHIMBUN)Struggling Toshiba Corp. decided it will pull out of the TV production business, a division that has been accumulating losses for many years, as part of its streamlining efforts, sources said.

The only TV production plant totally owned by Toshiba is in Indonesia. Toshiba plans to sell the plant to Compal Electronics Inc. of Taiwan. A joint venture plant in Egypt will be sold to its Egyptian partner, manufacturer El Araby Co.

Toshiba also intends to ask several hundred employees to take early retirement from its home appliances operation that covers TVs, personal computers and white appliances, such as refrigerators and washing machines.

The electronics giant will formally announce the moves in late December, sources said.

Toshiba's TV operations were one area in which profits had been padded in an accounting scandal that has led to resignations and lawsuits against company executives.

As part of the company's plan to turn around money-losing divisions by fiscal 2016, Toshiba is accelerating downsizing measures. The company wants to sell off its TV operations before the end of the current fiscal year next March.

Toshiba's ending of its TV operations is part of an industry-wide issue facing Japanese companies. While many Japanese companies were among the first out with flat-screen TV sets, they have been losing ground in recent years to Chinese and South Korean manufacturers that have come out with much cheaper products.