“After posting an annual net loss of Y545 billion ($5.4 billion), the biggest in its 100-year history, Sharp Corp. said it plans to replace both its president and chairman after just one year in an unusually public rebuke of former management that underscores the depth of the struggling electronics maker’s problems,” Mayumi Negishi reports for MarketWatch.
“Sharp said Tuesday that executive vice president Kozo Takahashi, 58, will replace current president Takashi Okuda, who led the company during a tumultuous year during which it scrambled to secure capital and warned about its future as a going concern,” Negishi reports. “Mr. Okuda will become a chairman without representative rights, replacing Mikio Katayama, a former president who oversaw Sharp’s aggressive–but ultimately failed–expansion of its liquid crystal display TV panel business. The changes will occur after Sharp’s shareholders meeting June 25.”
Negishi reports, “Sharp, a key supplier to Apple Inc. AAPL -2.29% , logged a bigger net loss of Y545.35 billion in the year ended in March, from a Y376.08 billion loss in the previous year. The loss, although well-flagged by media, was bigger than the market expectation for a Y450 billion loss, according to Thomson Reuters. Sharp’s operating loss came to Y146.27 billion from a loss of Y37.55 billion a year ago on Y2.48 trillion in revenue, virtually unchanged from last year.”
Read more in the full article here.
Once Tim Cook is unemployed, he can go run Sharp.
Tim has enough money to buy Sharp!
Other than orders, does Apple have any investments in Sharp? Apple should invest in Sharp if for no other reason, to keep Samsung competitors alive. (Yes I know Samsung has invested in Sharp.) If Sharp shares fall far enough, I would like to see Apple make a significant investment in Sharp.
So Pioneer made arguably the best TVs on the planet, stopped making them, then made a deal with Sharp to use some of their tech and brand name (Elite) to what is arguably the best LCD TVs on the planet… Maybe Apple should make a deal to get all the TV engineers and patents from Pioneer and Sharp.
Plasma. Never settle for anything less. And Pioneer did make the very best plasma.
agreed that Pioneer manufactured the best televisions, and by most measures, other plasma displays are just now approaching the 2008 Pioneer Elite Kuro image quality in 50 – 60″ displays.
I believe Sharp only purchased the marketing name “Elite” from Pioneer. Panasonic acquired some of Pioneer’s display patents and is now widely considered the display leader for consumer home theatre.
Apple, for some unknown reason, seems not to have made any efforts to partner with the excellent Japanese display manufacturers, instead going to Korea for all its needs.