Japan’s Olympus Corp, hit by a $1.7 billion fraud scandal, plans to shed 2,500 workers and sell an equity stake to either Sony Corp or Panasonic Corp in a bid to bolster its finances, local media reported Wednesday.
Olympus, the world’s leading maker of diagnostic endoscopes, is struggling to recover from an accounting fraud uncovered last year by its then CEO, Michael Woodford. It was forced to correct years of accounts, leaving its balance sheet badly weakened.
The job losses, equal to about 7 percent of its total workforce, will come mainly from Olympus’s loss-making camera business and by consolidating its overseas plants, the Nikkei business daily said. They would be revealed on June 8, it added.
Sony and Panasonic are the leading contenders to pump fresh equity in Olympus, the Asahi newspaper said, adding that the successful suitor would invest several hundreds of millions of dollars for a stake of more than 10 percent. That decision is expected by end-June, newspaper added.
Olympus shares jumped 4 percent to 1,214 yen on the news, although the stock is still down nearly half since Woodford blew the whistle last October.
Investors in Sony and Panasonic, both struggling to turn their own businesses around after reporting record losses, gave the newspaper reports a cold reception on Wednesday. Sony shares fell 1.9 percent and Panasonic lost 2.2 percent in a wider Tokyo market which dipped only 0.3 percent.
Panasonic is considering plans to shed as much as half its 7,000-strong workforce at its headquarters, after 17,000 job cuts in the year ended March 31. Sony has said it is cutting 10,000 people from its payroll.
