Following LG's move, Matsushita Toshiba Picture Display, a joint venture between Matsushita (Panasonic) and Toshiba, decided to close their European and USA subsidiaries that manufacture CRT (cathode ray tubes).

LG announced at the beginning of November that it has almost stopped the sales of CRT TVs on the European market, betting its future on thin televisions. The company will sell only its remaining stock.

MT Picture Display (Matsushita Toshiba Picture Display) Germany and MT Picture Display Corporation of America will be closed by the end of March 2006, the companies stated. In Europe, MT Picture Display manufactured CRTs for large screen TVs, while the plant in USA produced CRTs for projection TV's and also large screen TVs.

Regarding the employed staff, the European factory has 605 workers and the USA factory - 727 workers.

Matsushita and Toshiba made the decision to close these plants because the flat panel televisions that are based on LCD (liquid crystal display) and PDP (plasma display panel) prices are falling quickly and users tend to go for the newer technology and quit their bulkier CRT TVs.

Only in Japan this year 1 million LCD TVs were sold and 310.000 PDP TV's, in spite of the stagnating 80.000 CRT TV's number.