Troubled Toshiba to leave the stock market and become a private company

Toshiba Corporation, a symbol of the Japanese technological miracle of the 1950s and 1960s, ceases to exist as a public company and becomes a private one after 70 years on the stock market, writes Sky.

At one time, Toshiba produced laptops, televisions, radios, microwaves, DVD and Blu-ray players, hard drives, electric batteries, air conditioners, rice cookers, MRI and ultrasound machines, electric trains, elevators, excavators, air defense missiles and MLRS systems, and nuclear reactors. It’s easier to name what Toshiba didn’t produce.

In recent years, Toshiba, whose products were once a symbol of Japan, has been going through a rough patch. Since 2015, the company has been involved in a series of scandals and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Since then, Toshiba has been selling off parts of its business and looking for investors.

In September 2015, the company stopped producing TV sets at its own factory and outsourced it to contract manufacturers. In October 2015. Toshiba sold its photosensor business to Sony. In 2016, the medical equipment business was sold to Canon. At the same time, China’s Midea Group acquired an 80% stake in Toshiba’s home appliance division. In 2017, the American nuclear reactor manufacturer Westinghouse, which belonged to Toshiba, went bankrupt, causing the parent company $9 billion in losses. At the end of 2017. Toshiba sold most of its computer and flash memory business to the Bain Capital consortium, now Kioxia. In 2018, 80% of the personal computer and laptop business went to Sharp. And so on.

In 2021, Toshiba decided to divide the remaining business into three parts, but shareholders abandoned this plan. In March 2023, the company received an offer to acquire almost 80% of the shares for $15 billion from Japan Industrial Partners. It received shareholder approval. September 27, 2023. Toshiba is taken over by a new company, TBJH, and is delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange within a month.

Unfortunately, financial analysts say it is not at all clear whether Toshiba will be able to return to profitability even after being delisted.

What Toshiba products have you ever used?