Friday, October 25, 2013: Panasonic is reportedly planning to downsize on half of its chip division workforce. The electronics giant is apparently going to downsize on thousands of employees after record losses were seen recently. Further, the company, which is also planning to decrease its chip manufacturing business, may also sell some of its manufacturing plants in this segment.
The company is reportedly planning to cut down on 7,000 jobs from its chip manufacturing units by March 2015 from a total of 14,000 employees. This will include early retirements, lay offs and some employees who will be moved to other sections of the company.
The company has reportedly been struggling and trying to recover from combined losses topping $15 billion in the last two years. It is apparently in talks with Israeli circuit maker TowerJazz in order to sell one of the company’s plants from the chip business.
Apart from selling its chip manufacturing factories, Panasonic may also sell the building of one of its subsidiary companies in Osaka. The company is now reportedly planning to manufacture only the more profitable chips, such as those in industrial equipment and vehicles.