Maytag, the third-largest appliance-maker in the United States, has withdrawn from a joint venture with one of China's leading manufacturers, Rongshida.
It took a loss of US$42.3 million in ending the brief reign of the first Western chief executive of a Chinese appliance firm.
Xing Shumin, a spokeswoman for Rongshida, based in Hefei, capital of Anhui province, said all US employees of the venture, including chief executive Vic Lawrence, had returned to the US and Maytag had withdrawn from the venture.
The venture was set up in 1996 by Rongshida, which then controlled half the domestic market for washing machines and wanted to move into refrigerators but lacked capital or technology for such an expansion.
It sought out Maytag, which had global sales last year of US$4.3 billion, as one of the world's top producers of refrigerators.
The US firm invested US$70 million in the venture, of which it and Rongshida each held 49.5 per cent, with the remainder by the Hong Kong Ai Yue Group. Maytag was looking for a profit in three to five years.