WORLD
Panasonic to cut up 7,000 jobs in semiconductor business
Baku, October 24 (AZERTAC). Panasonic Corp. plans to cut up to 50 percent of the workforce in its semiconductor business — 7,000 employees — by March 2015 and sell off some of its factories, sources said Thursday.
Most of the job losses will be overseas, while employees in Japan will be transferred to other businesses, the sources said.
Panasonic has chip-making plants in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It is already in talks with Israel`s Tower Jazz, a manufacturer of integrated circuits, about the sale of overseas facilities.
Panasonic`s semiconductor business has been losing money amid fierce international competition with South Korean and Taiwanese makers, an economic slowdown and sluggish sales of flat-panel TVs.
The company will shift its resources to auto- and housing-related businesses that are expected to see growth down the road, the sources said.
Panasonic may also curtail or even stop making chips at its three mainstay plants in Japan, the sources said. It has already been reported that Panasonic`s system LSI business will be merged with that of Fujitsu Ltd. into a new company.
Panasonic has already implemented an early voluntary retirement program for workers in its domestic semiconductor division and plans to transfer remaining personnel to other divisions, the sources said.
Panasonic is expected to book tens of billions of yen in costs for the personnel cut in the current business year through next March.
The company`s semiconductor business registered sales of ¥184 billion but suffered an operating loss of ¥20.5 billion in fiscal 2012, which ended in March this year.
Suffering an overall net loss of more than ¥750 billion for the second straight year in fiscal 2012, Panasonic is streamlining its unprofitable operations. It has decided to withdraw from plasma TV and smartphone production.