Toyota loses $1.6 B, sepuko expected next quarter

[BaalChatzaf]

The Toyota Corporation has posted its first ever operating loss, about $1.6 B, for this year. The top management of the company are currently writing their Death Poems and if the losses continue in next quarter, they will don their ceremonial white sepuko robes and slice out their livers to apologize to the Emperor and the stockholders. Seconds, chosen from middle management will stand by with kana blades to decapitate the top managers as they fall forward in an honorable manner.

Meanwhile G.M. loses about $1.6 B a week. Few or none of the top managers are expected to resign or apologize. Those that do will be given a "golden parachute" by the board of directors, funded out of their portion of the $17 B sent to them by the compassionate conservative Bush administration. These folks will die with their livers and heads intact.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Brant Gaede]

The Toyota Corporation has posted its first ever operating loss, about $1.6 B, for this year. The top management of the company are currently writing their Death Poems and if the losses continue in next quarter, they will don their ceremonial white sepuko robes and slice out their livers to apologize to the Emperor and the stockholders. Seconds, chosen from middle management will stand by with kana blades to decapitate the top managers as they fall forward in an honorable manner.

Meanwhile G.M. loses about $1.6 B a week. Few or none of the top managers are expected to resign or apologize. Those that do will be given a "golden parachute" by the board of directors, funded out of their portion of the $17 B sent to them by the compassionate conservative Bush administration. These folks will die with their livers and heads intact.

Must be some mddle way. How about public stocks?

--Brant

[Chris Grieb]

While the Japanese are a trifle extreme theirs is a better idea than a bail out.

[syrakusos]

This would be Toyota's first operating loss since 1950, Toyota spokesman Steve Curtis said.

Despite the likely operating loss, Toyota expects to post a $557 million net profit for the fiscal year. The profit stems, in large part, from joint ventures whose revenues are not included in the automakers' accounting for its operating profits.

Toyota's joint ventures include a facility in Japan, operated in co-operation with Panasonic, that produces batteries for hybrid vehicles and a factory in California, operated jointly with General Motors, that builds the Toyota Corolla sedan and the Pontiac Vibe small wagon.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/22/news/compa...oyota/index.htm

That is another difference in the way Japanese companies do business -- everyone gets a small slice of the pie, One company will be the general contractor now and get a larger share, but that role will switch with the next project. When I worked with Kawasaki (1991), they were the leading robot company in Jaoan, but signed on as junior partners in a venture to produce "micro-bots" that will clean out your arteries.

On the other hand, GM and the other auto makers, do as the NYSE demands and they divest every "outside" business that "detracts" from their "core." So, GM let go of Hughes. Meanwhile, when I worked at Honda (2001), they built just one "experimental" jet with a small university -- Alabama State or someplace unlikely -- and now, Honda has a jet they offer for production. (See here.)