Pioneer Exiting Plasma Business?

Japan's Pioneer Electronics has announced it is "reviewing" its struggling plasma flat-panel television business, possibly prior to shutting it down.

Japan’s Pioneer Electronics has issued a statement that the company is "reviewing" its flat-panel plasma television display business (PDF, Japanese), possibly setting the stage for Pioneer to get out of the business entirely. Japan’s Nikkei business daily and the Kyodo news agency have reported that Pioneer is completing plans to get out of the plasma production businesses later this year, and will instead buy plasma panels from competitor Matsushita and rebrand them with the Pioneer logo.

Pioneer is currently the number five plasma display company, makes a number of high-end plasma panels, and has recently introduced its Kuro line of displays catering to the home theater crown with deep blacks and wide color gamuts. However, Pioneer’s plasma business has been seeing sluggish sales, and the plasma television world in general is seeing increasing pressure from ever-larger (and ever-cheaper) LCD televisions. The Nikkei reports that Pioneer’s plasma business is expected to report a ¥10 billion loss (about $95 million) for fiscal 2008, shipping fewer than 500,000 units in a year it had anticipated shipping 720,000 units.

A Pioneer spokesperson said the company’s president, Tamihiko Sudo, will reveal the company’s business plans at a news conference later this week.