Toshiba facing $986 mln loss in HD DVDs: Nikkei

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp <6502.T> will likely book a 100 billion yen ($986 million) loss in its high-definition DVD business and post a full-year operating profit of around 250 billion yen, falling short of its outlook, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday.

Toshiba's decision to pull the plug on its HD-DVD DVDs will mean production line changes that would double the 50 billion yen loss the electronics group had previously expected from its lost war over next-generation DVDs, the Nikkei said.

The industrial and electronics group has said it expected an operating profit of 290 billion yen for the year through March, but executives have said the outlook for the world's No.2 maker of flash memory may be hurt from price falls for such memory and for liquid crystal displays.

($1=101.38 Yen)

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

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