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Panasonic is likely to significantly scale-back its camera business, according to a report by Japan’s largest business newspaper. The Nikkei Asian Review says the move is one of the proposals of a report prepared by the company’s business planning department.
Like all large electronics makers, Panasonic has found it hard to make profit in an industry with increasingly tight margins. The report puts forth ways to rationalize the business, sell or close loss-making groups and focus on the company’s areas of strength.
The paper identifies three businesses: ‘digital cameras, private branch exchange telephone systems and optical disk drives,’ which, it says: ‘will be dismantled. Each will be scaled back and placed under the umbrella of other operations, with headcount to be reduced.’
With the number of compact cameras being sold having fallen precipitously and the interchangeable lens camera market stagnant, the digital camera division is an obvious target for cuts as part of the company’s restructuring.
The Nikkei also says that ‘In the chip business, the company is weighing unloading shares in a joint venture with an Israeli enterprise,’ presumably a reference to the TowerJazz Panasonic Semiconductor joint venture that builds CMOS sensors, amongst other things.
Panasonic’s financial year ends on March 31st, so we’ll be watching the announcement of its 2017/18 plans for signs of the report being implemented.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)