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LG Electronics said in a regulatory filing on
Tuesday that the decision reflects a decline in demand for
plasma TVs, with the business accounting for 2.4 percent of its
2013 annual revenue. The exit was widely anticipated as LCD TVs
have become the mainstay in global markets.
"We wanted to keep it going as long as we could," LG spokesman
Ken Hong told Reuters, noting that LG Electronics has been
making its own plasma panels. "No matter how much we try to keep
it going it's just not a business anymore."
Analysts said plasma displays were technically unable to catch
up to the advances in screen resolutions, and it also consumed
more power and generated more heat than LCD.
"All those factors combined to push industry players to
concentrate on LCD technology," said Seoul-based IBK Securities
analyst Eo Kyu-jin.Market research firm NPD DisplaySearch said
in July that global plasma TV shipments will fall to 500,000 in
2015 from 5.2 million in 2014, all but disappearing from the
market.
Japan's Panasonic Corp said in October last year that it would
pull out of the plasma TV business. Once LG exits, Samsung
Electronics Co Ltd would be the last major player.
Samsung says it plans to continue making plasma TVs but declined
to say where it would get the plasma panels once sister company
Samsung SDI Co Ltd pulls out of the business by end-November.
(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
and Ryan Woo)
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