Mitsubishi Electronics America Inc. is shutting down its Cypress-based computer monitor division in a move expected to displace more than 90 employees at the plant.
As a result of a joint venture with Japanese electronics maker NEC Corp. to make monitors under the NEC-Mitsubishi name, Mitsubishi will shut down monitor operations here and merge them into the new business in Itasca, Ill., a Chicago suburb.
Mitsubishi officials wouldn’t comment in detail about the venture before its formal launch next month, but they said the move has been in the works for months.
Makers of commodity computer products such as monitors and disk drives have faced increasing pressure to streamline operations and cut costs amid a flood of low-price competition. Mitsubishi’s move comes less than a week after Seagate Technology Inc. said it will close its 600-worker Anaheim plant and shift production to other countries.
More than half of the affected employees have found other jobs within Mitsubishi, company officials said. Those who don’t find other positions will receive “generous” severance packages and help with their job search, they said.
About 15 people from the division will remain in Mitsubishi’s Cypress facility to support the joint venture, scheduled to ramp up July 1. The Tokyo-based venture began operations April 1.
Employees have known about the move for months, but company officials have not publicized it, waiting for the formal launch. The 200-person venture will combine the two companies’ monitor research and development, manufacturing, marketing and sales operations.
The NEC-Mitsubishi monitor business will continue to make lower-profit cathode-ray-tube monitors. But the venture also will produce pricey flat-panel plasma displays, which are more profitable. The first product release will be the Diamond Plus 73, a budget-level 17-inch monitor built around Mitsubishi’s Diamondtron NF tube technology.
Mitsubishi Electronics, a unit of Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Electric Corp., employs about 225 people in Orange County, including the monitor division. The company is one of the county’s largest foreign-owned businesses, with 1,500 local employees, including those in the company’s automotive, auto financing and consumer electronics businesses.
Mitsubishi Electric posted sales of more than $31 billion last year.
In March, the company closed its 10-person mobile computing support operation, also based in Cypress.
Tokyo-based NEC has no significant Orange County operations but employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and generated about $40 billion in revenue last year.
