14 DAY TRIAL // Even though some companies did better than expected the past year, most IT players, Sharp and Logitech among them, have to face harsh facts.
In fact, Sharp and Logitech seem to be getting the short end of the stick, losing billions and making harsh management decisions.
Sharp, for the financial year ending March 2012, registered a loss of 117.1 billion Yen, which translates into $1.4 billion and 1.05 billion Euro, respectively.
Restructuring costs and inventory losses were the main forces behind this veritable financial disaster.
Alas, that doesn't mean the TV business is doing well. In fact, it is expected for their sales to be 18.7% lower than initially projected, so Sharp has decided to convert some big-screen LCD production lines into mobile LCDs to make up for that.
As for Logitech, even though Q4, 2012 profits raised by 9% on-quarter, yearly profits were 44% lower, dropping from $143 million / 108.09 million Euro to $71 million / 53.75 million Euro.
The future CEO, Bracken P. Darrel, former executive of Whirlpool, has to somehow turn the company around, and his methods aren't all that pretty, even though the current CEO agrees with his moves.
"I believe the organizational streamlining that Bracken is driving is a decisive step for Logitech's future," said Guerrino De Luca, Logitech chairman and chief executive officer.
"Looking ahead, I am also excited about what I believe is a strong lineup of new products with a much clearer value proposition to consumers. We expect that increasingly differentiated products will provide strong up-sell opportunities across all of our businesses. The majority of these new products will launch in Q2."
Basically, Bracken P. Darrel has demoted current product VP Junien Labrousse and fired sales VP Werner Heid. The next order of business will be to make some "stronger" products, particularly LifeSize video conferencing devices and Windows 8 peripherals.