Reuters: Technology News: Panasonic may cut mobile unit, post writedown: sources

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Panasonic may cut mobile unit, post writedown: sources Oct 26th 2012, 06:40 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Japan government aims to list Japan Post in three years Thu, Oct 25 2012 Mobile revolution, economy trip up tech giants Fri, Oct 19 2012 Analysis: Smaller firms grab big slice of mobile advertising Fri, Oct 12 2012 Google warns of more Motorola cuts, revises up third quarter bill Thu, Oct 4 2012 Analysis: Is Sony buying time - or problems? Thu, Oct 4 2012 People visit Panasonic Corp's booth at CEATEC JAPAN 2012 electronics show in Chiba, east of Tokyo, October 2, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Yuriko Nakao TOKYO | Fri Oct 26, 2012 2:40am EDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp may shrink its mobile phone unit by withdrawing from Europe within six months, prompting a possible writedown on the business in the year ending next March 31, two sources told Reuters. Panasonic's new boss, Kazuhiro Tsuga, has pledged to revive the company by cutting money-losing or barely profitable businesses. He has said he will announce a restructuring plan by the end of March. The company has as much as 70 billion yen ($873 million) of goodwill on its mobile phone business, according to analysts' estimates, after the 2010 purchase of shares in Panasonic Electric Works it did not already own. Writing off part or all of that would add to 41 billion yen of restructuring costs already planned for this business year. The Japanese company, which stopped sales of mobile phones overseas in 2005, returned to Europe in April with a plan to sell 1.5 million smartphones this business year. Panasonic said in December it wanted to increase global mobile phone sales to 15 million by March 2016 including 9 million overseas. That target is unlikely to be reached, the sources said on condition they were not identified. Panasonic, which is forecasting an annual operating profit of 260 billion yen, will release results for the quarter ended on September 30 on Wednesday. ($1 = 80.1650 Japanese yen) (Reporting by Reiji Murai; Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Michael Watson) Related Quotes and News Company Price Related News Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

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