Pioneer will close its long-standing flat-screen television business by March 2010 as it struggles with huge losses amid plunging consumer sales. Despite being an early player in the flat screen arena, the Japanese company always struggled to grasp a large share of the market and recently began making a loss in this area.
On February 12, 2009 a small announcement appeared on the
Pioneer website stating that the company would “concentrate its investments
and commercial efforts†on car electronics, navigation, audio AV and pro-DJ
products.
Michiko Kadoi, Pioneer spokeswoman, was quoted on the BBC website
as saying: “Since the US financial crisis and ensuring global
downturn, our sales of car electronics products and flat-screen TVs plunged
worldwideâ€.
“We were severely hit by battered consumer sentiment.â€
Pioneer also
announced it is to cut a further 10,000 jobs and
warned it expected to report an annual loss of 130 billion yen (€1.1 billion).