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Reaffirming their liquid crystal display (LCD) panel manufacturing alliance, Samsung and Sony have plans to jointly construct a third flat-screen factory in South Korea, according to filings with the Korea Stock Exchange.
The companies are planning to invest $1.8 billion (1.8 trillion Korean won) on an eighth-generation (8G) production line through their S-LCD joint venture that already operates two factories in Tangjeong in South Korea. The new factory will be built at the same site and is scheduled to start turning out LCD panels in the second quarter of 2009, the two companies said in reports.
In November 2006, S-LCD completed its second line called 8-1, which is also 8G.The new line has been given the name 8-2, and will accept sheets of mother glass-- from which several panels can be made-- measuring 220 centimeters by 250 centimeters.
In addition to its other eighth-generation line in Tangjeong, called line 8-1, S-LCD operates its original seventh-generation (7G) line. With each successive jump in production technology the size of the mother glass sheets is increased and economies are introduced into the production process, with the higher technology lines making larger panels at a lower per-inch cost.
The 8-2 factory is scheduled to process 60,000 mother glass sheets per month, which makes it larger than the 8-1 facility that handles up to 50,000 sheets per month, reports said.
Output from the plant will be split between the companies, with 51% going to Samsung and 49% going to Sony, in line with their share holdings in S-LCD.
In February, Sony had started talks with Sharp towards investing in a new production line that Sharp has under construction in Japan, which will be based on tenth generation technology and will be best suited to making LCD panels in the 60- and 50-inch class
Motorola Inc in a filing with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Thursday stated plans to cut 2,600 jobs, bringing the total number of employees laid off at the company to about 10,000 since the beginning of 2007.
Motorola, which last week announced it would spin off its struggling mobile devices business in an attempt to create shareholder value, is doing so as part of an announced $500 million cost savings plan.
The move follows on announcements from Motorola in January 2007 that it would slash 3,500 jobs and in May 2007 that it would cut an additional 4,000 jobs as it attempted to improve its ailing financial results.
Share your comments on Motorola’s layoffs in our related blog, “Job cuts begin at Motorola as it separates mobile devices.”As a result of the 2,600 job cuts, Motorola said in the SEC filing that it will take a pre-tax charge of $104 million in Q1. About $113 million of the charge comes from severance costs, partially offset by $9 million of reversals for accruals from prior periods that are no longer needed, the filing states.
In October 2007, Motorola announced that its layoffs had cost the company more than $300 million so far for the year.
Motorola said that its estimated Q1 charges are expected to result in future cash expenditures during 2008 and that all three of its business segments, as well as various corporate functions, are impacted by the workforce reduction plans.
Included in the 2,600 number are position cuts in Singapore announced earlier this week. Motorola said it will end manufacturing of mobile devices at its location in Singapore by year’s end, cutting about 700 employees, as it moves forward with plans to separate its mobile devices business.
The workforce reduction represents approximately 4% of Motorola’s 66,000 employee base, as recorded in its 2007 annual report filing, made in February.
