Tokyo – Toshiba’s Digital Media segment, which includes consumer electronics and personal computers, had a 2 percent decline in sales for the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, reaching $2.8 billion, down from $2.9 billion in the year-ago third quarter.
Toshiba said sales of PCs fell in both the domestic and overseas markets, while sales of A/V products increased. Sales of mobile equipment eased, the consequence of sluggish growth in demand for cellular phones, said the company.
The company narrowed its operating loss in the Digital Media segment in the third quarter, hitting $22.1 million, down from $32.9 million in the same quarter in 2000.
For the nine months, sales in the Digital Media segment dropped 5 percent, coming in at $7.9 billion, down from $8.5 billion in the year-ago third quarter.
The company turned operating income of $82.3 million for the nine months of 2000 into an operating loss of $105.9 million for the current nine months in 2001.
Sales to North America edged up 2 percent in the third quarter, reaching $1.57 billion, or 17 percent of Toshiba’s net sales. This compares with $1.55 billion in the same quarter in 2000, or 15 percent of the company’s net sales.
For the nine months, sales to North America dipped 5 percent, hitting $4.4 billion, or 16 percent of overall net sales. This compares with $4.7 billion in the same nine months in 2000, when this region accounted for 15 percent of net sales.
The U.S. economic downturn and a further slowdown in demand for IT-related products continued to haunt Toshiba in the third quarter, which saw consolidated net sales decline 13 percent to $9.2 billion, down from $10.6 billlion in the year-ago period.
The pattern of price erosion and decreased sales impacted on profit during the third quarter, reducing operating income to $528 million. The company reported a net loss of $643 million in the third quarter, compared with net income of $83.8 million in the same quarter in 2000.
For the nine months, consolidated net sales dropped 12 percent, to $28.2 billion, down from $32 billion in the same nine months in 2000. The company reported a net loss of $1.6 billion for the nine months, compared with income of $492.2 million in the same period the previous year.
