Toshiba is a 150-year-old technology company that has made a name for itself not only in Japan but around the world for the work it has done since its inception. The Japanese giant has been active in the field of electronics and information technology systems for years. has innovated.

The dream of many children, Toshiba computers have been people’s favorite computers for years. familiar and desired It was one of the brands. However, the scandals of recent years brought the end of Toshiba.

Before moving on to how the Japanese tech giant collapsed, let’s take a look at its founding and rise.

In the 1870s Japan was a country trying to modernize and develop. The foundations of Toshiba were laid in these years. At the time, the Ministry of Engineering required engineers and engineers to develop telegraph equipment. inventor Hisashige TanakaHe ordered. Tanaka was founded in 1875 to keep up with increasing orders. Tanaka Seizo-sho(Tanaka Engineering Bureau).

Hisashige Tanaka and Ichisuke Fujioka

Another founder of Toshiba, Ichisuke Fujioka, at a young age Japan’s first arc lamp He was a successful engineer. Fujioka began to improve itself and started producing incandescent light bulbs in 1890. Hakunetsu-sha Co. Ltd.He founded . The bulbs produced greatly reduced Japan’s dependence on Europe and America.

The two companies were pioneers in the development of electrical equipment in Japan.

The company’s name after Tanaka’s death, who died in 1881 Shibaura engineering company was changed to . A name change to Hakunetsu-sha also took place in 1899 and the company was given a new name Tokyo Denki it happened. The companies continued their electrical work without interruption until 1923.

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 with a magnitude of 7.9 seriously affected both companies, as did all of Japan.

Tokyo after the earthquake

In this earthquake, which killed more than 100 thousand people, Tokyo Denki lost most of its employees. While the wounds of this great disaster were slowly healing, the Japanese government began preparations for World War II.

The country’s economic hardship put businesses in a difficult situation. For this reason two companies in many areas started working together.

In 1939 it was decided to merge with the name Tokyo Shibaura Denki.

The logo of the two companies

This is how Toshiba’s first steps were taken. Both companies had a common goal. He already is would become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of electrical machines. Many products have emerged from this partnership of two companies with extensive experience in their respective fields.

One of the first home appliances produced by Toshiba Rice Cooker

Due to the increasing demand for home appliances in post-war Japan, the company turned its focus to this. Developing successful strategies, the company from washing machine to kitchen appliances began to gain a major place in the Japanese market with many products.

Tokyo Shibaura Denki; not only produced new products, but also developed new technologies.

The company, which has expanded its existing factories, has made a major contribution to Japanese technology by turning these factories into R&D centers. With these steps, the company Sales and profit figures also increased rapidly..

After a period of 20-30 years with new products and technological steps, Tokyo Shibaura Denki, from the early 1970s, began to open up to the world market.

In 1984, the company’s official name was changed to “Toshiba”, a shortened form of Tokyo Shibaura Denki.

The rise of Toshiba, which entered the world market with electronic products in the 1980s, continued with its innovations in information systems. In a short period of time It has made a name for itself as one of the world’s leading technology brands.

Toshiba, not only because its products have the latest generation of technological features, Ergonomically designed and robust As a result, it has become a preferred brand

Toshiba wanted to be even more successful and decided to keep up with the evolving and changing technology.

He expanded his business network by concentrating most of his resources on semiconductors and computers. Company, In 1985 it produced the world’s first laptop personal computer.

In the 1990s, however, economic crises began to occur in Japan.

Toshiba has also developed several strategies to minimize this situation. One was the internal business system. The aim of this system is to give established companies more autonomy. to make faster decisions.

This developed strategy enabled Toshiba to have a very successful period from the early 2000s to 2014.

The company has opened up to the whole world with the quality products it produces. With the developing technology positioning in the growing market for started working with growing sectors and emerging companies. The company has played to the top with its technology and products in a competitive environment.

That is until 2015…

As with any successful company, Toshiba has had some tough times. However, in 2015 accounting scandalcaused the beginning of the company’s period of collapse.

The foundations of the scandal in 2015 to the global financial crisis of 2008 is based. The company had made risky investments to repair the failing economy. However, the fall in interest rates also reduced the value of these investments, resulting in a poorer picture.

Toshiba Executives apologize to the public and investors

We, the company, to the world and to investors we are in good shape, no problem image He wanted to give. For this reason, misleading financial reports were presented to investors by showing higher win rates than different trades. After the revelation of the scandal, Toshiba’s stock fell and the company’s market value fell dramatically.

Japan’s financial regulator, the FSA, has launched an investigation to determine the extent of the scandal. As a result of the investigation, Toshiba is full It was found that he was hiding a profit of $1.2 billion. Company officials seeking to minimize the fallout from the scandal $2.7 billion in compensation It tried to cover the shareholders’ losses by making a payment decision. After this incident, the company’s executives resigned.

Toshiba somehow tried to get through this difficult period and faced new crises in the following years.

Toshiba conducted studies in many fields such as computer science, technology and health, and also conducted studies in the nuclear field. Another reason for the crisis in 2015 is that after the nuclear accident in Fukushima in 2011, the huge losses in the nuclear business unit had to live.

In an attempt to cover the traces of the accounting scandal, the company went bankrupt in 2017 after Westinghouse Electric, its subsidiary that manages its nuclear power business in the United States. second strike from the same place it has been eaten.

Built at Westinghouse Electric, South Carolina Error in cost calculation of two nuclear power plants announced that he did. This ruling increased the cost of the projects by approximately $10 billion.

With the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric, which was unable to pay such a large sum, Toshiba is close A huge loss of $6.3 billion was thought to have suffered. The company, which did not disclose any net losses, announced on April 6, 2018 that Westinghouse had been sold for $4.6 billion.

The Japanese tech giant, looking to recover after successive blows, began selling many of its parts.

One of the biggest of these sales is memory to cover the damage from the 2017 nuclear scandal. was the sale of 20% of the chip division. Until 2020, several steps were taken to recover.

However, in addition to the economic hardship caused by the 2020 pandemic, a Chinese investment fund’s desire to form a partnership made things more difficult. The Chinese investment fund wanted to invest in the nuclear power division of the company. This situation, homeland security It caused concern and caused a great reaction.

Following the backlash, Toshiba’s entire nuclear division was transferred to a Japan-based investment fund and the nuclear business was completely closed to the company.

However, the problems did not stop in 2021 and 2022. The company’s management received great reactions from the public, government and investors alike after these events. Can’t take the pressure anymore officials have resignedcompany continued to sell some parts.

Today, Toshiba is still active in many industries. Although the accounting and nuclear scandal, management problems, have significantly damaged the company’s reputation. reconstruction efforts continues.

In this context, according to the March 24, 2023 news, the giant technology company was founded by Japan Industrial Partners, a Japan-based private equity firm. 15 billion dollars will be bought in exchange. While not yet final, both Japan Industrial Partners and Toshiba executives agree with this decision to save Toshiba thinks it’s enough.

You can find more detailed information about Toshiba’s sales process in our content below.