Toshiba sold for 14 billion euros

According to press reports, the electronics company Toshiba is being sold to an investment group for the equivalent of 14 billion euros. The company is to be privatized in the course of this.

Toshiba in crisis

Toshiba has been in a veritable crisis for some time, which should be overcome with the most diverse maneuvers. So far, this has not succeeded. After an accounting scandal came to light in 2015 – Toshiba had presented embellished figures – things went downhill for Toshiba. In the years that followed, the company also racked up losses on nuclear power plants in the U.S. and sold its NAND flash division to remain economically viable. It now operates under the name Kioxia. There were also plans to split it into several companies, but shareholders rejected the idea.

Sale to investment group

Now the crisis is to be overcome by selling the company to an investment group consisting of 20 Japanese companies, including Chūbu Denryoku, investment bank ORIX and electronics manufacturer Rohm. According to a Nikkei report, the purchase price is around two trillion Japanese yen, equivalent to around 14 billion euros. The traditional company, founded in 1875, is to be privatized as part of the takeover. Provided the authorities approve the sale, Toshiba will consequently disappear from the stock market.

Toshiba currently only holds a prominent position on the market with its MAMR hard disks. After Seagate and Western Digital, Toshiba is the third largest HDD manufacturer on earth. The use of Microwave Assisted Magnetic Recording (MAMR) for the production of HDDs is a unique selling point of Toshiba. This technology can be used to manufacture HDDs of up to 20 TB in size.