松下宣布将于2014年退出电浆电视业务

日本大厂松下(Panasonic)宣布将于 2014年3月停产电浆电视；放弃无法营利的业务一直是2012年始任松下总裁的津贺一宏(Kazuhiro Tsuga)优先必办事项之一，不过退出时程比原先预期早了一年。 近年来，衰弱的电视业务是许多日本消费性电子大厂的棘手问题，包括松下在内；据统计，松下的电视业务部门在过去两个会计年度，已经让该公司净亏损150亿美元。去年，松下电视业务部门的营业亏损达到885亿日圆(约9.13亿美元)。 日本厂商是开发电浆电视的先驱，但日立(Hitachi)已经在2008年退出电浆电视市场，一年后Pioneer也退出，只余松下孤军奋战。松下在本世纪初决定在专门生产电浆电视的Amagasaki厂投资5,000亿日圆，但当时液晶技术已经成为全球平面电视市场主流。 津贺是第一个对电浆是否优于液晶技术提出质疑的松下高层，他在2012年接受日本某杂志媒体访问时还描述了他自己在家里做的一个实验──2011年4月他接管亏损的松下电视业务，就在家里各放了一台松下电浆电视与竞争对手的液晶电视，以消费者的角度来进行比较。 他表示：“我跟我太太每天都看这两台电视，我太太因为是松下支持者，就说电浆电视好象比较好，但我并没有看到很明显的差异。”松下已经停止了电浆电视新产品的开发，但仍将继续销售库存产品，据了解在下一个财务年度就会清空。 而津贺也一直强调，若任何业务在三年内无法达到5%的营业利润，就会放弃；他也逐渐玻璃一些所谓的非核心资产。例如松下上个月已宣布同意出售生产血糖监测机、电子纪录维护设备的医疗照护业务，买主是美国私募基金业者KKR & Co.，总价16.7亿美元。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Judith Cheng 参考英文原文：Panasonic Kisses Plasma Goodbye，by Junko Yoshida

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{pagination} Panasonic Kisses Plasma Goodbye Junko Yoshida TOKYO — Call it the end of an era. Panasonic will stop producing plasma TV panels by March 2014. Ditching the unprofitable business had been high on Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga's to-do list since he took office last year, but the exit will be made a year sooner than had been predicted. In recent years, the weakening TV business has stalked Japan's many ailing consumer electronics companies, including Panasonic. Its TV division has contributed to the company's $15 billion of net losses over the past two fiscal years. Last year, that division posted an operating loss of 88.5 billion yen ($913 million). Japanese manufacturers were ground breakers in the development of plasma TV. But with the handwriting on the wall, Hitachi left the plasma panel business in fiscal 2008. Pioneer called it quits a year later, leaving Panasonic as the last company to abandon plasma screens. Especially damaging to Panasonic's business was its decision to invest more than 500 billion yen in its plasma-focused Amagasaki facility in the mid-2000s, when LCD panels were already dominating the flat-panel TV market worldwide. Tsuga earned his reputation by becoming the first Panasonic executive to question openly if plasma screens were visibly better than LCD panels. In a 2012 essay that appeared in the reputable monthly publication Bungei Shunju, Tsuga described a personal experiment at home. Soon after taking over the money-losing TV unit in April 2011, he had a Panasonic plasma TV and a rival brand's LCD TV installed in his home to compare them from the consumer's viewpoint. "My wife and I watched them every day. My wife, who was probably rooting for Panasonic, said that plasma TV might be a little better. But I didn't see a discernible difference." Panasonic has halted development of new plasma TVs. It will continue selling them -- reportedly until next fiscal year, when inventory is expected to run out. Tsuga has been outspoken about shutting down any division that fails to meet a 5 percent operating margin within three years. He is also offloading so-called noncore assets. Panasonic agreed last month to sell its healthcare business, which makes blood sugar monitoring devices and electronic recordkeeping systems, to the US private equity firm KKR & Co. for $1.67 billion.