The Japanese newspaper, Shinano Mainichi Shimbun, has reported that Shinanokenshi, Plextor's parent company, plans to exit the CD/DVD drive business. Due to competition from Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers, the company has experienced declining profits. As a result, its optical drive business will be reduced to about 10% of what it was at its peak. Translated from Japanese:
It was announced that Shinanokenshi (Ueda city) assumed that the achievement got depressed due to the earnings deterioration of the disk drive business for the personal computer on the 19th, and reorganized the business including the voluntary retirement recruitment that became the first in this company. This business reduces greatly because the price fell sharply because of the competition of South Korea and a Taiwanese manufacturer. The closing of accounts at the period on February, 2007 is expected to fall to the final deficit at two terms, and strengthens the development of the high-value-added commodity such as motors for the car while the review of a domestic and foreign production base and the staff assignment is advanced.
According to the article, the Plextor brand will continue but will focus on industrial equipment and audio equipment for the visually handicapped.

While this news doesn't surprise me, we have not heard anything from Plextor's American or European subsidiaries yet. It's possible that they may remain in the optical drive business by rebadging drives or focusing on Blu-ray but at this point, we'll have to wait and see. Thanks to WesleyTech.com for pointing out this news.