Philips ditches home entertainment, sees future in razors and toasters

Philips ditches AV, sees future in razors and toasters
The future's bright, the future's toasted

There'll be no more speakers, Blu-ray players or headphones from Philips as the company has sold off its audio and video business to a Japanese company.

Despite making money on the division last year, CEO Frans van Houten justified the move to Reuters by pointing out that the market for AV products is shrinking and "margin dilutive" (which means there's not much money to be made on each product).

Updated: Philips won't be disappearing from the electronics shelves altogether though - the new owners, Funai, will have the license to sell Philips branded goods (which, in fact, it already does in the US).

Sign of the times

Last year Philips sidelined its TV division by partnering up with TPV - or, rather, handing over 70 per cent of it to the Hong Kong based monitor maker.

Today's deal is completely separate to the TPV partnership, and Philips remains a major shareholder in the TV business.

The focus for Philips now will be on the very lucrative healthcare tech sector, as well as consumer products like electric razors, toothbrushes, toasters, juicers and coffee makers, so you should expect to hear significantly less about it on these here pages.

The AV business was offloaded to Japan's Funai Electric co for 150 million Euros (about $202 million, £128 million).

"This completes the repositioning away from consumer electronics," van Houten concluded.

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.