Toshiba posts quarterly loss on lower chip prices

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA,Associated Press Writer AP - 35 TOKYO - Toshiba Corp. said Wednesday it posted a loss in the most recent quarter, tumbling into the red as flash memory prices continued to fall and demand for home appliances waned.
The Tokyo-based electronics giant reported a net loss of 26.85 billion yen ($272.8 million) in the July-September quarter, a sharp downturn from the 25.0 billion yen ($254 million) profit it booked during the same period last year.
Sales declined 7 percent to 1.88 trillion yen ($19.1 billion), while operating profit plummeted 99 percent to 707 million yen ($7.3 million).
'The global economy entered into a recessionary phase, caused by factors that included financial crisis from the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S. and rising energy and raw materials prices,' the company said in its earnings release.
The quarter's biggest casualty was the electronic devices segment, which wilted under Toshiba's struggling semiconductor business. The company, Japan's largest chipmaker, blamed an appreciating yen and steeper-than-expected price declines for NAND flash memory, widely used in consumer electronics.
The segment alone booked an operating loss of 29.3 billion yen ($302.8 million), down 66.6 billion yen from the previous year, Toshiba said.
Its home appliance segment also lost money, as slumping personal consumption undermined sales in the so-called white goods business _ washing machines and other household appliances _ and lower housing construction hit its lighting division.
Toshiba's withdrawal from the HD DVD business contributed to a 15.5 billion yen ($160.2 million) operating profit for the digital products segment, despite slower sales of office equipment and mobile phones.
For the April-September fiscal half-year, Toshiba posted a 38.4 billion yen ($390.1 million) net loss on revenue of 3.5 trillion yen ($35.6 billion). It was the first half-year loss for the company since 2003.
In September, Toshiba lowered its net profit forecast to 70 billion yen ($711.2 million) for the fiscal year through March 2009, down sharply from 130 billion yen.
Toshiba's financial results are based on U.S. accounting standards.