Toshiba lost $1 Billion on HD-DVD

Published on March 13th, 2008

Japan’s Toshiba expects to post nearly one billion dollars in total HD DVD losses in the current business year to the end of this month, a local business daily reported Thursday…

Toshiba conceded defeat last month to rival Sony in a long-running DVD format war, clearing the way for the Blu-ray format developed by Sony and its partners to become the industry standard…

HD DVD’s fate was sealed by a series of heavy setbacks, with Hollywood titan Warner Brothers and US retail giant Wal-Mart both throwing their weight behind Blu-ray.

Yes, we noted the details as they happened. Now, we know the cost – or as much as Toshiba will admit.

12 users responded in " Toshiba lost $1 Billion on HD-DVD "

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# 1 bobbo said, on March 13th, 2008 at 6:09 am

I didn’t believe 1 Billion—so imagine what I think of the article quoting a 100 billion loss?

I assume this is some sort of accrual accounting write off and not actual bucks==so the story means almost nothing as the “facts” are obscured.

Did learn that Toshiba owns Westinghouse–I must have been on vacation when that happened. AND we are outsourcing military aircraft manufacturing. The America I knew has died.

# 2 Mike said, on March 13th, 2008 at 6:11 am

I’m seeing Dr. Evil here… one *billion* dollars!!!

# 3 OmegaMan said, on March 13th, 2008 at 6:33 am

Hey it was just Sony’s turn to win after losing the betamax fiasco!

# 4 morram said, on March 13th, 2008 at 6:40 am

My betamax deck looks great next to my blueray deck

# 5 bac said, on March 13th, 2008 at 7:49 am

How long will it take for blue ray players to drop in price? Will there be blue ray players in the price range of $150 to $200 by the end of this year?

# 6 Mark Derail said, on March 13th, 2008 at 8:53 am

Technically Blu-ray players could be given away.

Profit is the media, not the player.

Why pay for an expensive player hardware when you can’t even publish from hardware you own – media content you create – and play it?

I sure won’t.

My next dvd player will allow for reading all formats – all media types – and be able to record like a vcr – or I will not buy it.

# 7 OhForTheLoveOf said, on March 13th, 2008 at 9:12 am

Blu-Ray needs to be DVD before I even care. The media just costs too much and there is no back catalog at all.

When I can buy virtually anything ever made as I almost can with DVD, and when you can buy titles at budget DVD prices, then I’ll care.

I’m sure that day will come, and probably not too long from now… but it isn’t now so its just a trendy luxury. It needs to be a commodity.

# 8 bjer said, on March 13th, 2008 at 12:00 pm

I wonder how much the early adopting consumers lost. Blu-ray may be hi-def, but the hi-price outweighs it for the moment.

# 9 Don said, on March 13th, 2008 at 3:30 pm

They have to have lost WAAAAAAYYYYY more than only 1 billion dollars. The 1 billion is just what they are writing off this year as they close things down.

The drop in cost for Blueray players will be very minimal for at least the next year. Why do they need to drop prices? They have a monopoly now. They didn’t drop prices when the had competition.

Don

# 10 Steve S said, on March 13th, 2008 at 8:43 pm

Wait till we see what it cost Sony to win this time.

# 11 Mac Guy said, on March 14th, 2008 at 4:42 am

Yeah, I got dicked by this whole deal. I bought one of the Toshiba HD-DVD players the day after Thanksgiving from Best Buy. They offered 7 free HD-DVD movies, 5 of which you had to mail in to Toshiba.

We sent it off the first week of December, and the disks are still not here. So much for “allow up to 10 weeks.”

# 12 doug said, on March 14th, 2008 at 6:47 am

I have to laugh. Toshiba deserves this.

Here is what they were up to in 1987

“In 1987, Toshiba Machine, the subsidiary of Toshiba, was accused of illegally selling CNC milling machines used to produce very quiet submarine propellers to the Soviet Union in violation of the CoCom agreement, an international embargo on Western exports to East Bloc countries. The Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal involved a subsidiary of Toshiba and the Norwegian company Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk. The incident strained relations between the United States and Japan, and resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two senior executives, as well as the imposition of sanctions on the company by both countries.[2] The US had always relied on the fact that the Soviets had noisy boats, so technology that would make the USSR’s submarines harder to detect created a significant threat to America’s security. Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania said “What Toshiba and Kongsberg did was ransom the security of the United States for $517 million.”

1 billion should cover it, plus the interest

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