TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese electronics maker Toshiba said Friday its net profit plummeted a staggering 95 percent in the January-March quarter due to losses related to its exit from the next-generation video HD DVD business.
Toshiba Corp.'s profit stood at 1.25 billion yen (US$12 million, euro7.61 million), sharply down from 26.17 billion yen a year earlier.
''Our net profit sharply fell due to the end of HD DVD business,'' Toshiba spokeswoman Hiroko Mochida said, adding the one-time for pulling the plug on its HD DVD business cost about 48 billion yen (US$461 million; euro292 million).
Most of the losses come from shutting down assembly lines and dealing with inventory, according to Toshiba.
On top of that, the operation racked up a 60.2 billion yen (US$580 million, euro368 million) operating loss for the fiscal year ended March 31, she said.
Toshiba announced the end of its HD DVD business in February. The technology had been competing against Blu-ray disc technology, backed by Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, five major Hollywood movie studios and others.
Toshiba said a drop in flash memory chip prices also hurt its results.
Quarterly revenue fell 3 percent from a year earlier to 2.09 trillion yen (US $20 billion, euro12.68 billion).
In the financial year that ended March 31, Toshiba's net profit declined 7 percent to 127.4 billion yen (US $1.2 billion, euro760 million).
For the current fiscal year, Toshiba forecasts a slight rise in net profit to 130 billion (US$1.25 billion; euro790 million), up 2 percent on year, on 8 trillion yen (US$76.9 billion; euro48.8 billion) sales, up 4.3 percent.
The earnings report came after the end of trading on the Tokyo stock exchange. Shares in Toshiba fell 2 percent 848 yen (US$8.15; euro5.17) on Friday.
