Panasonic Corp is set to cut its chip division workforce in half, axing thousands of jobs as the electronics giant overhauls its battered balance sheet after record losses, Japanese media reports said yesterday.
The plan to shrink Panasonic’s money-losing chip business could also see it sell off some chip manufacturing plants, the leading business daily Nikkei Shimbun said, without citing sources.
Panasonic, which has chip factories in Japan and overseas, would axe 7,000 jobs from the unit by March 2015 from a total of 14,000 employees, through an unspecified number of layoffs, early retirements and moving workers to other divisions, it said.
Panasonic would take a ￥50 billion (US$510 million) charge over the job reductions for the fiscal year that ends in March, but expects improved earnings to offset the impact, it added.
The struggling firm — recovering from combined losses topping US$15 billion in the past two fiscal years — has started talks to sell some overseas plants to Israeli chipmaker TowerJazz with a deal likely to be reached before early next year, the Nikkei said.
Japan’s Jiji Press news agency ran a similar story, saying the plan was aimed at putting a bigger focus on more profitable chips found in vehicles and industrial equipment, moving away from those found in televisions and mobile phones.
Panasonic responded that “we are studying our chip business strategy from various angles, but nothing has been decided.”
The firm may also sell buildings that house the Osaka headquarters of its Sanyo subsidiary as part of the wider restructuring effort, Japanese media said.
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