Toshiba Corp, Japan's largest chipmaker, cut its full-year profit target by 31 percent because of falling prices for flash memory and costs to withdraw from the HD DVD business.
Net income is expected to decline 9 percent to ¥125 billion (US$1.3 billion) in the 12 months ending on March 31, the company said in a statement yesterday. Tokyo-based Toshiba in October forecast net income of ¥180 billion.
Toshiba, the leading promoter of HD DVD technology, on Feb. 19 abandoned the next-generation home-video standard after Warner Bros Entertainment said in January it would side with the Blu-ray format backed by Sony Corp. Warner's decision prompted US retailers to stop sales of HD DVD products.
Toshiba expects sales of ¥7.7 trillion, 1.3 percent less than previously forecast and 8.2 percent higher than a year earlier. Operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, is likely to drop 11 percent from a year earlier to ¥230 billion, compared with its earlier projection of an increase to ¥290 billion.
Toshiba climbed 3.3 percent to close at ¥690 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange before the forecast announcement. The stock has lost 18 percent this year, compared with a 20 percent drop by the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average.
Toshiba also said it would book ¥45 billion in non-operating losses in the HD DVD business this fiscal year. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc estimated the exit would cost as much as ¥51 billion.
The operating loss at the HD DVD division is estimated to widen to ¥65 billion this fiscal year, from ¥34 billion in the previous 12-month period and ¥50 billion forecast earlier. Sales at the business will likely climb 86 percent to ¥26 billion, missing the previous goal of ¥65 billion.
Toshiba also cut its operating profit projection for its semiconductor business by 43 percent to ¥85 billion, because of greater-than-expected price declines. The division posted operating income of ¥128.3 billion last fiscal year.
Prices of the benchmark NAND flash memory chip, used to store songs and video in cameras and mobile phones, have declined 22 percent this year.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS