Japan Display says that it must must overhaul its manufacturing system and restructure the company as losses increase. JDI says that it has failed to keep up with the industry shift to new technologies (OLEDs), but it now plans to strategically focus on OLED displays.
JDI announced a loss of $287 million in the last quarter, three times higher than the loss last year. JDI plans to shed 3,700 jobs (about 30% of its workforce) and it says that this is the last chance to restructure.
JDI expects higher losses in the year ahead as it plans to increase its OLED R&D, and the company will need to raise new funds to support the accelerated development. Mass production is not expected by 2019, though. The company's CEO, Nobuhiro Higashiiriki, said "we now see no future for the smartphone panel business without OLED".
Towards the end of 2016 JDI received a $650 million USD investment from INCJ to grow its LCD and OLED business. Parts of these funds were used to take over a majority stake in printed OLED developer JOLED.
