Doubt looms over Sanyo revival after company hit by plunging prices

TOKYO: When a 6.8-magnitude earthquake jarred Sanyo Electric Co.'s chip-making plant in northern Japan last October, reversing the company's profit forecast to a massive loss, it was a crowning blow to an electronics giant already rattled by plunging prices and sinking stock. 

Osaka-based Sanyo, founded in 1947 as a maker of bicycle lamps and now a world leader in digital cameras and mobile phones, has since installed new management to rekindle the company, turning heads with the rare appointment of a female chief executive. And on July 5, the company made an equally bold move _ announcing a plan to revive earnings by cutting 14,000 jobs, or 15 percent of its global work force.