News of the job cuts, equivalent to 27 per cent of the company's workforce, came as Pioneer forecast a worse-than-expected net loss of Y130bn ($1.4bn) in the year to March 2009. Pioneer added that sales fell 38 per cent in the Christmas quarter compared with the same period last year.
The plan to stop producing televisions makes Pioneer one of the first Japanese companies to abandon a significant market in response to a dramatic slowdown in consumer electronics.
Pioneer's high-priced plasma TVs, sold under its Kuro brand, are favourites among both reviewers and home theatre buffs. One post on an internet discussion site read: “This is a terrible day in videophile history.” Fans in the US waited up late for the announcement.
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