Sony might consider throwing in the towel concerning their TV business, and Samsung isn't exactly enjoying great TV sales either... cheap China is hurting their margins.


Sony's Hirai refuses to abandon dire TV business - Yahoo! News

Struggling Japanese entertainment giant Sony will not abandon its cash-bleeding television business, its incoming CEO says, but he acknowledges tough decisions lie ahead including over redundancies.

Kazuo Hirai said TVs were a vital part of the once-mighty company and vowed the division, which has been haemorrhaging money for the best part of a decade, would be back in the black by 2014.

"I view televisions as very important and an integral product category for Sony," Hirai told reporters at the firm's Tokyo headquarters on Thursday.

"It's one device that most consumers have in their home to enjoy all their visual content, sometimes audio content as well.

"And so I think it's very difficult to imagine Sony getting out of the TV business. It's basically at the centre of every entertainment experience."

In common with other television makers, Sony has been hit hard by fierce competition and decreasing margins, with consumers seemingly less willing to put down big sums for cutting edge living room technology.

Last week, Sony more than doubled its full-year net loss forecast to 220 billion yen ($2.9 billion), up from 90 billion yen previously.

The vast bulk of that loss -- 175 billion yen -- is expected in the television business.

Adding insult to injury, credit rating agency Standard & Poor's on Wednesday lowered its assessment of the company's creditworthiness one notch to BBB+, laying the blame squarely at the door of the TV sector.
Samsung says considering spinning off LCD business - Yahoo! News


Reuters – 21 hrs ago..

SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co said on Wednesday it was considering spinning off its loss-making LCD flat-screen business in a surprise move as it seeks to orient its components business towards OLED displays, touted as the next-generation technology that will replace LCD TVs.

The LCD industry has been mired in a slump since the second half of 2010 and looks set to become a low-growth commodity type technology with greater competition from low-cost Chinese manufacturers, according to industry studies.

Many analysts had expected Samsung would take full direct control of its OLED flat-screen business and merge it with the LCD operation to utilize part of LCD production capacity in making the more profitable new displays.

The surprise move also underscores the severe market conditions that the LCD industry is facing.

Samsung's South Korean rival LG Display has been loss making for the fifth consecutive quarter, while Japan's Sharp Corp forecast a record 290 billion yen ($3.70 billion) net loss for the year to March as a slump in TV sales forced it to halve output at a western Japan LCD plant.

Samsung ended its liquid crystal display (LCD) joint venture with Sony Corp recently.

"A spin-off will allow Samsung to focus more on OLED and also broaden its LCD customer base to companies that have shunned Samsung due to the fact that they are in direct competition with it in finished products such as televisions and computers," Seo Won-seok, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities.