Japan's electronics giant Panasonic plans to slash some 40,000 from its workforce in two years largely through personnel cuts overseas, a newspaper said on Thursday.
The Osaka-based firm will announce the reduction -- about 10 percent of its overall workforce -- later in the day as part of its business strategy, the Nikkei business daily reported.
This would form part of efforts to streamline overlapping operations at Panasonic Electric Works and Sanyo Electric, which became wholly owned units April 1, the daily said.
Panasonic intends to offer voluntary early retirement by the end of the next fiscal year starting in April 2012 mainly at their overseas production bases as well as employees at their headquarters, it said.
Before the merger, Panasonic had 220,000 employees, with Panasonic Electric Works and Sanyo employing 60,000 and 100,000, respectively.
Panasonic is expected to have returned to the black for the previous fiscal year to March 31, but its net profit will likely fall some 30 percent for the current year, even excluding the effects of the March 11 disaster, it said.
Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.