Pioneer to Exit TV Business, Focus on Car Electronics
Pioneer is throwing in the towel on its flat-screen TV business after four straight years of loss and little prospect of making any money in the current year.
The company, which is already in the middle of a restructuring, has decided to end all development of televisions and withdraw from the market by March next year, it said on Thursday while announcing quarterly results.
Going forward Pioneer said there are "no prospects for improving profitability" of its TV and display business and it would concentrate its home electronics operations on the audio, DJ equipment, and cable TV set-top box sectors.
However, the company's main focus will be elsewhere.
"Pioneer aims to transform itself into an enterprise centered on the car electronics business," the company said in a statement.
Pioneer last made an annual operating profit in its home electronics business in the 2004 fiscal year, which was the period from April 2003 to March 2004. It reported a slim profit of ¥4 billion yen (US$44 million) but in subsequent years posted loss after loss. In the first nine months of this year, the home electronics business racked up an operating loss of ¥24 billion.
:
