On Friday, the world's biggest plasma TV maker Panasonic Corp posted a 444.3-billion yen fourth-quarter net loss, citing slackened demand and heavy restructuring costs. The reported January-March quarter loss led to the company's second biggest yearly loss ever - its first in the last seven-year period!

The operating profit for the Osaka-based Japanese maker of Viera-branded TV sets plunged a gigantic 86 percent to 72.9 billion yen, with the sales tumbling 14.4 percent to 7.77 trillion yen.

Not only do the monstrous loss figures present a complete contrast to Panasonic's 61.6-billion yen net profit a year earlier, but also points at projections of the company going 'deeper into the red' this fiscal.

With Panasonic expecting a 195 billion yen net loss this year on 7 trillion yen sale, the company's President Fumio Ohtsubo intends taking up a few measures like - closing down loss-making business lines; shifting resources to businesses showing growth potential; improving product quality; and laying-off nearly 5 percent of its 300,000-strong global workforce.

Justifying the measures, the company said: "Panasonic expects that the economic environment in fiscal 2010 will be more severe than the past fiscal year, as the global recession and shrinking demand triggered by the financial crisis coincide with changes in market structure, including the expansion of emerging markets and a shift to lower-priced products."