| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Traded as | TYO: 6502 OSE: 6502 NSE: 6502 LSE: TOS |
| Industry | Computer systems Consumer electronics Semiconductors |
| Founded | 1939 (by merger) |
| Founder(s) | Hisashige Tanaka Ichisuke Fujioka Shoichi Miyoshi |
| Headquarters | Shibaura, Minato, Tokyo, Japan |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Norio Sasaki (CEO)[1] |
| Products | Desktops, servers, notebooks, netbooks, peripherals, digital products, electronic devices & components, social infrastructure, home appliances |
| Revenue | ¥6,398.5 billion US$77,090.4 million (FY 2010, 83 yen/US dollar)[2] |
| Operating income | ¥240.3 billion US$2,894.9 million (FY 2010, 83 yen/US dollar)[2] |
| Net income | ¥137.8 billion US$1,660.8 million (FY 2010, 83 yen/US dollar)[2] |
| Total assets | ¥5,379.3 billion US$64,811 million (FY 2010, 83 yen/US dollar)[2] |
| Total equity | ¥1,779.6 billion US$14,212.2 million (FY 2010, 83 yen/US dollar)[2] |
| Employees | 203,000 (as of March 31, 2011)[2] |
| Website | Toshiba Worldwide |
Toshiba Corporation (株式会社東芝 Kabushiki-gaisha Tōshiba) is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and materials, power systems, industrial and social infrastructure systems, and household appliances.
In 2010, Toshiba was the world's fifth-largest personal computer vendor measured by revenues (after Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Acer and Lenovo).[3] In the same year it was also the world's fourth-largest manufacturer of semiconductors by revenues (after Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics and Texas Instruments).
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Toshiba was founded by the merging of two companies in 1939.
The first, Tanaka Seisakusho (Tanaka Engineering Works), was Japan's first manufacturer of telegraph equipment and was established by Tanaka Hisashige in 1875.[4] In 1904, its name was changed to Shibaura Seisakusho (Shibaura Engineering Works). Through the first part of the 20th century Shibaura Engineering Works became a major manufacturer of heavy electrical machinery as Japan modernized during the Meiji Era and became a world industrial power.
The second company, Hakunetsusha, was established in 1890 and was Japan's first producer of incandescent electric lamps. It diversified into the manufacture of other consumer products and in 1899 was renamed Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric).
The merger in 1939 of Shibaura Seisakusho and Tokyo Denki created a new company called Tokyo Shibaura Denki (Tokyo Shibaura Electric) (東京芝浦電気). It was soon nicknamed Toshiba, but it was not until 1978 that the company was officially renamed Toshiba Corporation.
The group expanded strongly, both by internal growth and by acquisitions, buying heavy engineering and primary industry firms in the 1940s and 1950s and then spinning off subsidiaries in the 1970s and beyond. Groups created include Toshiba EMI (1960), Toshiba International Corporation (1970's) Toshiba Electrical Equipment (1974), Toshiba Chemical (1974), Toshiba Lighting and Technology (1989), Toshiba America Information Systems (1989) and Toshiba Carrier Corporation (1999).
Toshiba is responsible for a number of Japanese firsts, including radar (1942), the TAC digital computer (1954), transistor television and microwave oven (1959), color video phone (1971), Japanese word processor (1978), MRI system (1982), laptop personal computer (1986), NAND EEPROM (1991), DVD (1995), the Libretto sub-notebook personal computer (1996) and HD DVD (2005).
In 1977, Toshiba merged with the Brazilian company Semp (Sociedade Eletromercantil Paulista), forming Semp Toshiba.
In 1987, Tocibai Machine, a subsidiary of Toshiba, was accused of illegally selling CNC milling machines used to produce very quiet submarine propellers to the Soviet Union in violation of the CoCom agreement, an international embargo on certain countries to COMECON countries. The Toshiba-Kongsberg scandal involved a subsidiary of Toshiba and the Norwegian company Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk. The incident strained relations between the United States and Japan, and resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two senior executives, as well as the imposition of sanctions on the company by both countries.[5] The US had always relied on the fact that the Soviets had noisy boats, so technology that would make the USSR's submarines harder to detect created a significant threat to America's security. Senator John Heinz of Pennsylvania said "What Toshiba and Kongsberg did was ransom the security of the United States for $517 million."
In 2001, Toshiba signed a contract with Orion Electric, one of the world's largest OEM consumer video electronic makers and suppliers, to manufacture and supply finished consumer TV and video products for Toshiba to meet the increasing demand for the North American market. The contract ended in 2008, ending 7 years of OEM production with Orion.
In December 2004, Toshiba quietly announced it would discontinue manufacturing traditional in-house cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions. In 2006, Toshiba terminated production of in-house plasma TVs. Toshiba quickly switched to Orion as the supplier and maker of Toshiba-branded CRT-based TVs and plasma TVs until 2007. To ensure its future competitiveness in the flat-panel digital television and display market, Toshiba has made a considerable investment in a new kind of display technology called SED.
Before World War II, Toshiba was a member of the Mitsui Group zaibatsu (family-controlled vertical monopoly). Today Toshiba is a member of the Mitsui keiretsu (a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings), and still has preferential arrangements with Mitsui Bank and the other members of the keiretsu. Membership in a keiretsu has traditionally meant loyalty, both corporate and private, to other members of the keiretsu or allied keiretsu. This loyalty can extend as far as the beer the employees consume, which in Toshiba's case is Asahi.
In July 2005, BNFL confirmed it planned to sell Westinghouse Electric Company, then estimated to be worth $1.8bn (£1bn).[6] The bid attracted interest from several companies including Toshiba, General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and when the Financial Times reported on January 23, 2006 that Toshiba had won the bid, it valued the company's offer at $5bn (£2.8bn). The sale of Westinghouse by the Government of the United Kingdom surprised many industry experts, who questioned the wisdom of selling one of the world's largest producers of nuclear reactors shortly before the market for nuclear power was expected to grow substantially; China, the United States and the United Kingdom are all expected to invest heavily in nuclear power.[7] The acquisition of Westinghouse for $5.4bn was completed on October 17, 2006, with Toshiba obtaining a 77% share, and partners The Shaw Group a 20% share and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. a 3% share.
In late 2007, Toshiba's logo replaced the former Discover Card logo on one of the screens atop One Times Square.[8] It displays the iconic New Year's countdown on its screen, as well as messages, greetings, and advertisements for the company.
In January 2009, Toshiba acquired the HDD business of Fujitsu.[9]
Toshiba also manufactures small home appliances, most notably fully automatic digital rice cookers.
Toshiba is organised into the following principal divisions and subsidiaries:
In October 2010, Toshiba announced Toshiba Regza GL1 21" LED backlit LCD TV glasses-free 3D prototype at CEATEC 2010. This system supports 3D capability without glasses (integral imaging system of 9 parallax images with vertical lenticular sheet as used in Philips' Dimenco). The retail product 20" GL1 and 12" GL1 was released in December 2010.[12]
On February 19, 2008, Toshiba announced that it was to drop its format in the HD DVD 'war' with Sony and Pioneer-backed Blu-ray Disc devices.[13] Following a review of its business, Toshiba said it would stop production of HD DVD players and recorders.
The HD DVD format had suffered as most of the major US film studios backed the Blu-ray format, which was developed by Sony, Panasonic, Philips and others. Toshiba's President, Atsutoshi Nishida, announced "We concluded that a swift decision would be best [and] if we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win".
Toshiba continued to supply retailers with machines until the end of March 2008, and continued to provide technical support to the estimated one million people worldwide who owned HD DVD players and recorders. Toshiba has announced a new line of stand-alone Blu-ray players as well as drives for PCs and laptops, and has announced its intention to join the BDA, the industry body which oversees development of the Blu-ray format.[14]
The HD DVD versus Blu-ray battle has been likened to the VHS versus Betamax war of the 1980s.
After becoming aware that some customers felt that the repair process for broken laptops was too long, Toshiba partnered with the United Parcel Service (UPS) to design a more efficient repair process. Customers are told to drop off their laptops at a UPS Store, from which they will be shipped to Toshiba for repairs and then sent back to the customer. The laptops are in fact shipped off to an authorized UPS-run repair facility in Louisville, Ky, where UPS repairs the laptops themselves and ships them back to the customer directly.[15]
E-waste is something that negatively affects the environment due to improper discard of items such as computers, DVD players, and cell phones.[16] Most e-waste is hazardous to the environment because of its tendency to release toxic materials, such as lead and mercury, into soil and water, which later affect human, animal, and vegetation health.[16] Toshiba has been making efforts to lessen their impact on the environment. In March 2008, they tied for first place in Greenpeace’s seventh edition of its Guide to Greener Electronics that ranks electronics companies according to their policies on toxic chemicals, recycling and climate change.[17][17] Toshiba received 7.7 points out of ten points possible, showing its improvement in recycling and chemical use since the last edition when it was only ranked number six.[17][18] Toshiba focused on improving their score in Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR), which measures how efficiently a company deals with e-waste that is created from their own products that are thrown away.[19]
In Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics from November 2011 Toshiba ranked joint 13th (alongside LGE) out of 15 leading electronics manufacturers. In the revised edition the company benefited from having 2 penalty points lifted, one for backtracking on a commitment to make its new products PVC and BFR free by 2010, and the other for misleading its customers and Greenpeace by not admitting it would not meet this commitment. Despite this, Toshiba still scored badly, performing worst on the Energy section where it was criticized for not having a clean energy strategy and for not providing external verification of data on its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.[20]
The company fared better on Sustainable Operations being praised for providing data on its global recycling rates for TVs and PCs alongside a detailed breakdown. It was noted for having a detailed chemicals management programme and providing estimates of GHG emissions from each stage of a product’s lifecycle for its whole range of products.[20]
Toshiba reports that all of its new LCD TVs comply with the Energy Star standards and 34 models exceed the requirements by 30% or more.[21]
Toshiba also partnered with China’s Tsinghua University in 2008 in order to form a research facility to focus on energy conservation and the environment.[22] The new Toshiba Energy and Environment Research Center is located in Beijing where forty students from the university will work to research electric power equipment and new technologies that will help stop the global warming process.[22] Through this partnership, Toshiba hopes to develop products that will better protect the environment and save energy in China.[22] This contract between Tsinghua University and Toshiba originally began in October 2007 when they signed an agreement on joint energy and environment research.[22] The projects that they conduct work to reduce car pollution and to create power systems that don’t negatively affect the environment.[22]
On December 28, 1970 Toshiba began the construction of unit 3 of Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant[23] which was damaged in the Fukushima I nuclear accidents on March 14, 2011. In April 2011 CEO Norio Sasaki declared nuclear energy would "remain as a strong option" even after the Fukishima I nuclear accidents.[24]
On 22 April 2010, the French newspaper Humanity[25] criticized the social practices of the company, in its efforts to maintain a contract with the French State with the support of the latter. The principal charge carried by the daily newspaper is:
Within the framework of the revival program of Nicolas Sarkozy, the companies having a contract with the State are held to maintain full employment.
Toshiba, with its contract of the Union of the groupings of open-market purchase (Ugap), under the aegis of the French State, would have cut its manpower and an expert of the Secafi cabinet speaks even about waves of dismissals.
On 24 May 2010, after further investigation, the French newspaper Libération[26] reported a link with the UMP party in this political and economic business: Despite the fact that this whole thing was disputed by the National French labour inspectorate, the dismissal of an opponent is confirmed by the Ministry of Labour. Liberation published: "This is embarrassing for a group which largely benefits from the state and public account orders". Xavier Darcos, still Minister of Labour at that time, ignored the opinion of his collaborators and authorized the dismissal of a Union delegate even before the investigation report was submitted to him. The Libération newspaper made the point by announcing that the Director of Human Resources from Toshiba Systems France is an elected member of UMP party. See also section in French language wiki for more details.
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