Toshiba losing money in HD DVD business

By YURI KAGEYAMA

AP Business Writer

Toshiba also said it would rack up a 65 billion yen ($666 million) operating loss in its HD DVD business.

Last month, Toshiba acknowledged defeat in the battle to establish an industry standard for high-definition video, handing victory to the competing Blu-ray disc format. Toshiba said it will no longer develop, make or market HD DVD players and recorders.

The Japanese electronics maker lowered its group profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 125 billion yen ($1.26 billion), down from the initial forecast for 180 billion yen profit. Toshiba Corp. had earned a 137 billion yen profit the previous fiscal year.

Toshiba also lowered its sales projection for the fiscal year ending March 31 to 7.7 trillion yen ($78 billion) from the earlier 7.8 trillion yen.

A decline in prices for flash memory chips, devices for mobile phones, digital music players and other gadgets, also contributed to the sales drop, the company said.

The move to discontinue its HD DVD business ended the format war over high-definition disc formatting that began several years ago. Blu-ray - backed by Sony Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., which makes Panasonic brand products, and five major Hollywood movie studios - emerged the winner.

The decision by Warner Bros. Entertainment to release movie discs only in the Blu-ray format dealt the final blow, although Toshiba executives had repeatedly said they were confident of HD DVD as a technology.

Warner joined Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox in adopting Blu-ray as the standard.

Universal Studios, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation had signed on to make HD DVD movies.

Both HD DVD and Blu-ray deliver crisp, clear high-definition pictures and sound, which are more detailed and vivid than existing video technology. They are incompatible with each other, and neither plays on older DVD players. Both formats play on high-definition TVs.

HD DVD was touted as being cheaper because it was more similar to previous video technology, while Blu-ray boasts bigger recording capacity.

Only one video format was expected to emerge as the victor, much like VHS trumped Sony's Betamax in the video format battle of the 1980s.

Toshiba shares gained 3.3 percent to 690 yen ($6.97) before the earnings revision was announced.

The 'It bag gang' strikes again: Anya Hindmarch store is targeted in latest smash-and-grab

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Two thieves used a sledgehammer to smash through the window of the New Bond Street store.

They drove off on a silver moped before police reached the scene taking thousands of pounds worth of handbags and leaving the hammer behind.

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Shattered: Sledgehammer thieves raided Anya Hindmarch's New Bond Street shop

The raid at about 10.30pm yesterday was the latest in a series of attacks in the Bond Street area.

It is the second time Hindmarch ? famous for her I'm Not A Plastic Bag design ? has been targeted.

Second time unlucky: Anya Hindmarch is among several West End designers targeted by raiders despite extra security measures

In December, police raided addresses in north London and arrested members of gangs which had allegedly been carrying out up to three raids a week.

Detectives believe the latest attacks are the work of a new team, including a woman.

Last Thursday, four suspects on two scooters tried to break into Jimmy Choo's flagship store but electronic security shutters were activated when the glass was broken.

Two days earlier, a woman and a male accomplice stole at least 10 handbags worth thousands of pounds each after she smashed through the glass door of Italian fashion retailer Salvatore Ferragamo.

In October last year four men rammed the front doors of Hindmarch's store in Ledbury Road, Notting Hill, grabbing goods worth £20,000.

Detectives believe there is a loosely linked group of up to 50 individuals who are staging the raids.

Witnesses said last night's attack was carried out by two men on a moped.

They were wearing light-coloured crash helmets and grey hoodies. Shops items in windows overnight and to install shutters.

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There have been more than 60 robberies at boutiques and jewellers in Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Chelsea in the past few years, despite efforts by shop-owners to improve security.

Other stores in Bond Street and Sloane Street have stepped up security following a wave of motorbike raids.

The royal jeweller Asprey has been hit at least six times, losing some £400,000 worth of watches in one raid alone.

It led to Asprey importing 22mm reinforced glass for its shopfront at huge cost.

Gucci, hit at least twice in Bond Street and three times in Sloane Street, now employs 24-hour security guards.

The gangs can make tens of thousands of pounds re-selling designer items on the black market.

Anyone with information about any of the raids should call Westminster CID on 020 7321 8876 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

●Matthew Pitt, 24, of Islington, who led a gang on mopeds in 2006 who smashed their way into London shops such as Mulberry and Louis Vuitton to steal designer handbags worth tens of thousands of pounds was jailed for 26 months yesterday.

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