Panasonic in trouble?
- Thread starter _JD_
- Start date
...It`s not just Panasonic, but the whole Japanese Electronics industry that is having trouble competing with the the more aggressive Korean Electronic companies.
Sony’s losses dip; Sharp, Panasonic see wider losses
Panasonic Predicts Annual Loss on TVs, Restructuring Costs
Sony’s losses dip; Sharp, Panasonic see wider losses
Panasonic Predicts Annual Loss on TVs, Restructuring Costs
Zephyrnoid
Veteran
Keep in mind that in Asia, Europe, as in the USA, write-downs are tax deductions that are applied backwards and forwards to past or future taxes paid. These guys feel almost NO pain.
MichaelTiemann
Active member
That is a ridiculous statement. The CEO of SHARP is forced to admit that one of the largest companies in Japan may not be a viable concern going forward. Panasonic write-downs for 2012 are about the same size as Canon's total *revenues*. Those guys are sweating bullets, not just for their own jobs, but for the jobs of 10s of 1000s of employees. I've been to Japan dozens of times, and have met with many exectuives all over the country. Executives have privilege all over the world, but on the spectrum of "I do what makes the most money because that's best for the employees" to "I do what's best for the employees, because that's best for the company", the Japanese executives I have met are much closer to the second statement than the first. Which means that when a company loses $10B in one year, it creates a real exisential crisis. It makes them feel like they have betrayed not only their shareholders, but their employees as well. It is a shocking result that is not taken lightly.
Zephyrnoid
Veteran
When the Asian Watch Explosion launched in the Late 70's it decimated the monopoly that Germany & Switzerland had on fine wrist watches. Then it ate American and British watch makers whole. The result? Many Swiss brands consolidated and rather than hundred of brands, Switzerland now has about two dozen that account for most Swiss branded watches. The same occurred with cars in the West and the Same will occur with consumer electronics in Asia.
It's the way of the New Millennium. Since you've been to Japan, you might also have read on the Japanese Industrial Complex. How it began after WWII and the consortia that allowed so many brands to operate on a so small an island efficiently.
The consortia will simply force consolidation, which the Japanese appreciate as being very efficient and combines best in class benchmarks of excellence.
I've written before that redundancy costs the consumer and wastes resources. Canon, Panasonic, Olympus, Sony and Nikon ought to merge their consumer electronics divisions as consumers really could care less about badging.
Not sure how you carry your tax losses backwards, that needs a bit of splaining. Corporations can carry losses forward and can also carry revenue forward on profit, after income tax has been paid on it, giving some shelter on big profit years and averaging out consistant profit.
I've been self-employed for 25 years and owned three different corporations. I always get a charge out of folks who say, "no problem you can deduct it". Let me tell you, you have to make a profit before those prior year losses mean anything productive as far as deductions go. You can have all the deductions you want, if you don't make a profit, eventually, you are out of business or bankrupt. There is not a company on earth that wants a billion dollar loss and it is just silly to even suggest that there is no pain...
Grant