Bad news Kuro fans, the rumors were true and Pioneer is leaving the TV manufacturing business. On the upside, the restructuring deadline is March 2010, so a predicted net 130 billion yen ($1.44 billion) loss shouldn't be enough to get between you and the plasma HDTV of your dreams. The company's U.S. and U.K. plants are shutting down by April and February of this year, respectively, and product development for TVs beyond what's currently on the market is ending, seeing no prospects for improving profitability even after combining plasma efforts with Panasonic and LCDs with Sharp. Overall, there will be 10,000 fewer full time and temporary Pioneer employees than there were at the end of last year, while pay and bonuses for execs have been cut. The future for Pioneer? Mostly car audio, including in-car Blu-ray players and networked electronics, while its home electronics business focus on audio, DJ equipment and cable TV boxes, with a focus on using its expertise in improving sound. All other ugly details are contained in the press release, mourning the passing of another plasma supplier is in the comments.

[Via Bloomberg and AV Watch, thanks Carl H.]

Say it ain't so (again) Pioneer, Japan's Nikkei is reporting that despite planning a return to profitability by sourcing Panasonic plasma panels, facing a consolidated loss of 100 billion yen ($1.08 billion U.S.) it will end TV development and production entirely. The DVD business will be spun off into a new venture with Sharp as part of a plan to shed several thousand employees over the next year, including a shutdown of its Shizuoka plant, along with already planned closings in the U.S. and Europe. Honestly, we should have seen things were going badly when it let LaserDisc die, but the worsening economy may have proved too tough for the idea that its Kuro and Elite line of products would not be subject to the ups and downs of the economy.

[Via Gearlog, registration required on read link]

It wasn't that long ago that Monday mornings in the office were a depressing time -- another cheerful weekend gone; another long week of work ahead. But, these days, being in the office on a Monday is a good thing, because if your login still works you've survived another scary layoff Friday. Spare a thought, then, for those whose system access has been cut off, including 1,300 from Sun (the first wave of a total of 6,000 planned job cuts), 8,000 workers at Sprint who are due to receive pink slips, 6,000 from Philips, and an unannounced number of IBM workers (rumored to be 16,000) who have also found themselves to be on the wrong side of the cost-cutting ax. In one final bit of cheery news, AMD has reported a $1.4 billion loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 and, after shedding its handheld graphics unit, is now selling its manufacturing operations to Advanced Technology Investment. Oh, sorry, you were hoping for some genuinely good news? How about this: that loss is smaller than AMD's $1.8 billion loss from the same time last year. Now have a great day!

Read - Sun confirms 1,300 layoffs
Read - Sprint Nextel Plans to Cut 8,000 Jobs in Quarter
Read - Philips to Release 6000 Employees into Wild
Read - Several IBM employees report being laid off on Alliance@IBM
Read - IBM Confirms Layoffs
Read - AMD Reports $1.4 Billion Loss

Evidence that the economy has been ground to a fine powder continues to pile up, and today's brought another batch of bad news. Tales of woe abound, but looming largest is Sony, which announced its 2nd quarter earnings yesterday, then warned today that they expect to post a $1.7 billion loss this year (though we've seen other reports that are now putting the number at well over $2 billion). Additionally, Samsung is expected to post a first-ever quarterly loss when it reports its earnings Friday, which are expected to run somewhere in the neighborhood of a $67.7 million net loss. Moving on, Seagate's also announced an unsuprising cut of about 6 percent of their workforce in Thailand. Finally, LG has reported a $487 million loss, while TomTom announced a "cost cutting program," meaning they're cutting about 7 percent of their global workforce. Seriously, does anyone have a light-hearted Dilbert strip or something to ease some of the pain? Sheesh.

Read - Sony, Warning of Annual Loss, Escalates Cost-Cutting plan
Read - Samsung may report first ever quarterly loss
Read - LG Electronics Posts $487 Million Loss
Read - TomTom Cost-cutting programme
Read - Seagate to lay off up to 800 local workers

Hey Sony -- we know that experiencing your first annual operating loss in 14 years calls for drastic measures, but this is bordering on downright rash. Barely a month after announcing that 16,000 employees would be axed, Sony has now revealed plans to close one of its two television plants in Japan and rid itself of 2,000 domestic full-time jobs as it attempts to "revive its electronics business." Of note, it's stated that those 2,000 -- which seem to be a part of the previously mentioned 16,000 figure -- will be shed via "early retirement and other programs." Just think what a 40-inch XEL-1 would do for business. No, seriously Sony, just think.

[Image courtesy of DigitalWorldTokyo]

With profits tumbling 31%, Ericsson just announced its intent to shed 5,000 jobs across the globe (1,000 in Stockholm). The loss resulting from a "dramatic drop" in contributions from its Sony Ericsson joint venture. The 5k figure represents about 6% of Ericsson's 79,000 employees.

Barely two months ago we found that another round of layoffs would land 500 employees at AMD without a job. Now, we're hearing that the chip maker is looking to scale down its workforce by another nine percent, which means that around 1,100 positions will be vacated in Q1 2009. Also of note, the arguably overpaid Executive Chairman Hector Ruiz and his buddy Chief Executive Dirk Meyer will each see "temporary" (what, like a day?) 20 percent cuts in base salary. Oh, and in case you needed a little more doom and gloom with your wine and cheese, the outfit is also suspending its 401(k) company match. Awesome.

[Image courtesy of DavidWSmith, thanks Spencer]

It's official: Moto's pulling out the axe. The beleaguered manufacturer is no stranger to financial struggles at this point -- nor layoffs, for that matter -- but the latest round cuts some 6 percent of employees from Moto's global operations, and 3,000 of the 4,000 will come directly from the handset division. The news comes along with a preliminary fourth quarter earnings estimate of a 7 to 8 cent per share loss (which isn't really "earnings" when you think about it), so yeah, it's business as usual out in Schaumburg: get lean and start making awesome products. Soon, Moto. Please.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

Phone Scoop is reporting that doomsday is imminent for Motorola, possibly as soon as this week. First off, up to half of employees from the company's handset division will be shown the door, though the other divisions -- Enterprise Mobility Solutions and Home & Networks Mobility -- will be unaffected. Fewer employees inevitably leads to fewer phones, and it's being said that Moto will produce just twelve models per year; among smartphones, only Android will be considered. What's more, the company is pulling out of April's CTIA show -- the largest mobile event in the States -- so it looks like that Android gear won't be coming until later on. We'll have more on this as soon as we know what's up.