Word: matsushita
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...competition is already sizable. Some 800,000 units are in use in the U.S., manufactured by Matsushita and eight or nine other companies in addition to Sony. The new Betamax now costs $1,250 ($900 at discount), but the price is likely to drop. It is an appealing gadget. Quite apart from its immediate use, taping programs the viewer might overwise miss, VTR cassettes can record for endless home reruns the occasional classic series such as Shakespeare's plays or historic news events like the saturation coverage of the Pope's visit to the U.S. And there...
...potential penalties are high. The U.S. importers−such as the large retailers and the U.S. subsidiaries of Matsushita, Sharp, Sanyo and Toshiba−could be required to pay dumping duties totaling $500 million owed on $2 billion worth of sets imported since 1971. In addition, the U.S.owned retailers could face civil fraud penalties totaling $1 billion and criminal fines of $5,000 for each shipment of TVs brought in under a false import declaration. But the prospect is for a less painful out-of-court settlement. Says one Treasury lawyer: "Nobody wants to see the Government take...
...Japanese, who make all available VTRs, have shown no eagerness to jump into this new market, even though several manufacturers, including Sony and Matsushita, are known to have developed disc machines. Evidently they do not want to begin promoting videodiscs while sales of VTR machines remain strong. A Sony spokesman insists: "We don't think the public is yet ready for the discs." Magnavox and RCA hope to prove him wrong...
However, the Japanese are allowed to assemble as many sets as they wish in the U.S.-so long as American workers provide 40% of the labor required to turn them into finished products. Three big TV makers-Sony, Sanyo and Matsushita-already own U.S. plants. Two others, Toshiba and Mitsubishi, are on the verge of opening production facilities in the U.S., which will, of course, create jobs for Americans...
...long fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Sony is pushing Betamax hard and hopes to have a million units in U.S. homes by decade's end. Zenith will begin selling Sony systems under its own label next fall, and RCA will be marketing a Matsushita-built system by then too. If color TVs and pocket calculators are valid precedents, the price of video-tape units should fall fast. Even if Universal and Disney win a final verdict in, say, 1980, there may be so many machines and tapes in American living rooms that enforcing the decision...