Panasonic's 100th anniversary: ​​Semiconductor business almost sold out and massive layoffs

Panasonic spins off digital cameras, lays off employees in six business units and reorganizes

According to a recent report by the Nikkei, Panasonic, a well-known Japanese home appliance manufacturer, announced that it would split and reorganize its six departments. Panasonic's private exchange telephone system, optical disk drive, and digital camera businesses will be gradually abolished, and it plans to lay off employees in several unprofitable business departments.

It is reported that the sales of the six business units targeted for layoffs in fiscal 2016 are expected to be 380 billion yen (about 111 yen to the US dollar, about 3.45 billion US dollars), accounting for 5% of the company's overall sales, and will incur a loss of about 46 billion yen (420 million US dollars). Panasonic suffered a net loss of more than 750 billion yen (6.8 billion US dollars) in both fiscal 2011 and 2012 due to the failure of its plasma TV business. The company then launched large-scale layoffs and withdrew from TV production in the US and Chinese markets and its personal smartphone business in Japan.

In addition, in the new fiscal year starting in April, Panasonic plans to transfer the equity of its LCD panel business and semiconductor business. Panasonic has two LCD panel production lines in Hyogo Prefecture, one of which will be shut down and looking for a seller. Along with the dissolution and transfer of related businesses, Panasonic will also carry out large-scale layoffs, and the number of layoffs is unknown.

Nikkei pointed out that Panasonic had improved its operating conditions by selling some semiconductor factories and lead-acid battery businesses, but it is still facing a slow growth in performance. The spin-off and reorganization of the digital camera business was due to the impact of smartphone photography, and Panasonic has fallen out of the top three in the market for two consecutive years. After selling the digital business, Panasonic's TO C business is almost gone.

In recent years, Panasonic and Fujitsu have successively withdrawn from the semiconductor business

As Japan's electronic equipment industry and brands go downhill, the related semiconductor parts that are non-core businesses attached to them are gradually being divested. The era of wanting to do everything is gradually over. The entire information industry is currently moving towards an era of professional division of labor.

For decades, Japanese electronics manufacturers have been obsessed with owning their own wafer fabs, but now, facing pressure from the market, Fujitsu and Panasonic have successively sold their wafer fabs to get rid of the system chip business.

On July 31, 2014, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Semiconductor, Panasonic and the Development Bank of Japan signed a formal agreement to integrate the system LSI (SoC) design and development businesses of the above-mentioned companies to establish a new company.

After signing this agreement, Fujitsu went a step further and in December 2014, it split its Mie Factory and Aizuwakamatsu Factory into independent new companies that will manufacture chip products for other semiconductor factories.

On March 2, 2015, Fujitsu Limited and Panasonic Corporation officially merged their system LSI businesses and accepted capital injection from the Policy Investment Bank of Japan. The new company, Socionext, was formed by the former Fujitsu Semiconductor SoC semiconductor department and Panasonic's semiconductor department and operated in a fabless model.

Panasonic also accelerated production outsourcing to support its sluggish semiconductor business. As early as 2014, Panasonic decided to sell its three semiconductor factories in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to UTAC, a Singaporean semiconductor company. In addition, Panasonic also sold its three main domestic factories to Israeli companies, mainly engaged in semiconductor assembly and production for ultra-thin TVs and digital cameras. At the same time, the equity of Panasonic's three main semiconductor production factories in Niigata and Toyama, Japan, was also sold in April 2015, and the Okayama factory stopped production and closed at the end of March 2015.

Socionext mainly produces Milbeaut image processors, which are widely used in SLR cameras, digital cameras and smartphones, and has 20 years of technical experience. It also includes Triton in-vehicle SoC, OmniView 360° panoramic driving assistance system, 4K/8K TV image processing LSI and other technical brands.

Based on the excellent resources such as technology research and development and even sales system provided by the Japanese head office, Fujitsu Electronics will be responsible for the global distribution business of Socionext. In terms of mobile phone components, it mainly provides 13M, 21M and other high-pixel camera ISP products, and has entered the Chinese dual-camera supply chain.

100th anniversary: ​​Panasonic divests non-core businesses and lays off employees again

In the minds of consumers, names such as Panasonic, Fujitsu, Sony, Samsung, and Toshiba are well-known electronic brands that are directly facing themselves, but in the supply chain system, they are large-scale international integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) that almost exclusively produce their own products.

On March 7, 1918, Konosuke Matsushita (the god of business) founded Matsushita Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Osaka. When he started out, he made lamp holders for electric lights. In 1927, he made bicycle lights. Since then, Matsushita has become a multinational group among the world's top 500 companies, ranking 26th.

In recent years, Panasonic has shifted its focus from B2C to B2B market. Panasonic's plasma TV bet failed and it gradually withdrew from the global TV business. In China, it closed down its plasma TV factory in Shanghai, LCD TV factory in Shandong, and lithium-ion factory in Beijing. With the rise of China's panel industry, Panasonic's LCD panel production line no longer has a competitive advantage, and it is inevitable to sell it.

2017 is the 100th anniversary of Panasonic's founding, and Panasonic is trying to achieve its sales target of 10 trillion yen. To this end, Panasonic has once again divested non-core businesses on a large scale, laid off employees in multiple unprofitable business departments, and may sell shares in LCD panel production lines and semiconductor businesses, in order to focus on core businesses, recover more funds, and make a satisfactory financial report.

Panasonic has expanded from home appliances to automotive electronics, residential energy, and business solutions, which is actually very successful. However, some analysts believe that although the B2B business has a stable market and high profit margins, its commercial nature determines that its sales cannot expand as quickly as the B2C business facing ordinary consumers.

Panasonic Semiconductor Agents List

Currently, Panasonic has few remaining semiconductor businesses, mainly semiconductor businesses under Panasonic Electric, including solutions for robots, solutions for solar power generation systems, solutions for smart homes, pyroelectric infrared human body sensors PaPIRs, PM2.5 sensors, lithium batteries, FPC connectors, and a series of solutions for smart terminals such as tablets and smartphones.

After the merger with Sanyo Electric, Panasonic is the largest electric motor manufacturer in Japan and the second largest in the world. Its product line is extremely wide. In addition to home appliances, it also produces digital electronic products such as DVD, DV (digital video camera), MP3 player, digital camera, LCD TV, notebook computer, etc. It also extends to electronic parts, electrical parts (such as socket cover), semiconductors, etc. At the same time, Panasonic has hundreds of indirect and direct investment companies.

Since Deng Xiaoping visited Matsushita Electric Company in 1978, Matsushita Electric Company has started to invest in China, integrating its business in China with China's reform and opening up and economic construction. From electronic materials to parts, from components to complete machines, from household appliances to industrial machines, so far, more than 160 technical cooperation projects have been carried out in China, 53 joint ventures and wholly-owned enterprises have been established (7 companies in Shanghai), with a total investment of nearly US$1.5 billion. It is reported that Matsushita Electric has 5 sales outlets and bases, located in Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. In China, the largest factory is the Matsushita Semiconductor Factory in Suzhou.

The main domestic agents of Panasonic Semiconductor are: Xinlei Electronics, Gangde, Xinheda, Yusheng (Huashanglong), and Huaqing. The main agent product lines are: relays, connectors, sensors, switches, batteries, capacitors, film capacitors, 8-bit/32-bit microcontrollers, LED driver ICs, display driver ICs, motor driver ICs, amplifiers, etc.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.