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The Japanese consumer electronics industry continues to feel the squeeze in the economy, with mass layoffs of workers representing one of the more painful effects. In the latest development, Panasonic Corp. says it will reduce its workforce by 10,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year, which completes in March 2013. The company had already warned that it will post losses of $10 billion for the full year, because of write-offs in its mobile, solar panel and lithium battery businesses.

The mobile business in particular has been seeing some tough times, with Panasonic Mobile reportedly preparing to pull out of the European market altogether, leaving it covering only Asia going forward.

While Panasonic has yet to make an official statement about the 10,000 layoffs, CFO Hideaki Kawai made the plans public in an interview with Reuters. They are part of a wider strategy to reach operating profits of $2.52 billion (¥200 billion) in the next three years. At the moment a fifth of its 100 business units are losing money, and there are plans for some of these to also be sold off.

Panasonic, along with other Japanese consumer electronics giants, have been between a rock and a hard place for a while now: on the one hand, there is the global economic downturn that has seen reduced consumer spending; on the other, the rise of Chinese and Korean, and other Asian companies making similar goods for significantly cheaper prices — or simply better quality, more desirable goods — has impacted these companies’ margins. Panasonic is a grandaddy of Japanese consumer electronics — it was founded in 1918 and remains Japan’s biggest employer — but in the last five years, it has posted four annual net losses.

The 10,000 cuts come on the heels of 36,000 layoffs at Panasonic last year. Several other Japanese consumer electronics giants have also faced mass layoffs. These include 11,000 workers reportedly getting the chop at Sharp (made public in September), and Sony announcing redundancies of a further 2,800 workers in October, part of its plan to cut 10,000 in total.

Ever heard of the 2012 Ene-1 Grand Prix Motegi before? Yes, you will not get luminaries like Sebastian Vettel here, but this is a next-generation car race that is powered by Panasonic’s Evolta rechargeable batteries, and it was recently held at the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit in Tochigi Prefecture. All cars that race in the Ene-1 GP will run on Panasonic’s AA size Evolta nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries as seen above, and we are not talking about just a dozen of these batteries, but rather, 40 of them puppies. The cars will be designed by individual teams, and of course just like Formula 1, there are limits and boundaries that teams will have to conform to in terms of design and engineering so that the playing field remains level.

The Ene-1 GP is made up of the time attack and distance races, where the former will compete to complete a single 2.4km lap, while the distance race will see who can cover the most distance in an hour. Teams can charge the rechargeable Evolta batteries just once before the time attack, so plenty of thought would have had to go into the vehicle’s design, in addition to having a skillful driver. The lighter, the better, I suppose?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: EVOLTA robot suits up for World Challenge 4, Panasonic Announces Its EVOLTA World Challenge III,

It’s reported that the European Union will fine six top electronics firms for price-fixing cathode-ray tubes used in older televisions and computer monitors. The six companies consist of Philips, LG, Samsung, Technicolor, Panasonic, and Toshiba. All of which are being accused of taking part in a cartel.

The European Commission raided all six companies in late 2007, and are said to announce the fines on November 28, according to a document by the Commission. The penalties for each company are expected to be big, since it was discovered that the cartel lasted for over a decade, starting in the late 1990s. However, the EU can only penalize companies up to 10% of their turnover.

Based on 2011 revenues, LG could be fined up to $5 billion, while Philips would top out at around $3 billion. While the fines aren’t expected to reach such levels, it will definitely put a hit on the companies, and it could take a few years recoup the losses, and maybe even longer than that.

This isn’t the first time that the EU has penalized the companies for such behavior. They fined six LCD companies, including Chunghwa Picture Tubes, Samsung Electronics, and LG Display a total of $824 million two years ago for taking part in a similar cartel. And last year, the EU penalized four companies $164 million for fixing prices.

[via Reuters]

Philips, LG, others said to be facing fines for CRT price fixing is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Panasonic Corporation will release the new AG-AF100A Series Memory Card Camera Recorder in November 2012. The AG-AF100A Series is the professional HD camera recorder with a Micro Four Thirds mount. As with the conventional model AG-AF100 Series, AG-AF100A Series can use a wide range of lenses including Micro Four Thirds compatible DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) lenses and Cinema lenses with a mount adapter. AG-AF100A Series also features two-channel XLR audio input terminals and more …