The board supports, but does not recommend, the acquisition of Toshiba for $15 billion.

Toshiba is in heavy water and needs to be sold urgently. There had already been talk of splitting the company into three smaller parts, but this was met with resistance from the board of directors. Another two-unit plan was again njetted. With the interference of activist investors, Toshiba has put itself on display, according to The Register.

Toshiba recently selected a consortium of Japanese companies as approved buyers. The critical board now supports the sale but does not recommend it.

An announcement (PDF) presented an offer to the consortium of Japanese companies to buy all of Toshiba’s shares in order to make the company private again. The shareholders then have four months to decide whether the takeover will go ahead. Precisely because of this long lead time, the current board does not recommend the deal.

This buys itself time in a weak macroeconomic climate to change its mind during this period. Within four months, the $15 billion takeover bid could potentially be a bad offer. The consortium is now offering 4,620 yen per share, about 10 percent higher than the share price but slightly below the six-month average. In October last year, the stock was worth 5,512 yen.

In the last ten years, Toshiba has not had a major turnaround with an accounting scandal (PDF), a political scandal and a huge loss in the US nuclear industry (PDF). In four months we will know if Toshiba is private again or if it has new headaches.