, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational

conglomerate Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to: * Conglomerate (company) * Conglomerate (geology) * Conglomerate (mathematics) In popular culture: * The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes ** Co ...

corporation headquartered in

Minato Minato (港 or 湊) is Japanese for 'harbor', and may refer to: Places * Minato, Tokyo or Minato City, a special ward in Tokyo, Japan * Minato-ku, Nagoya, a ward of Nagoya, Japan * Minato-ku, Osaka, a ward of Osaka, Japan * Minato (湊), a neig ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components,

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

s (HDD), printers, batteries, lighting, as well as IT solutions such as quantum cryptography which has been in development at Cambridge Research Laboratory, Toshiba Europe, located in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, now being commercialised. It was one of the biggest manufacturers of

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

consumer electronics Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) equipment intended for everyday use, typically in private homes. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Usually r ...

home appliance A home appliance, also referred to as a domestic appliance, an electric appliance or a household appliance, is a machine which assists in household functions such as cooking, cleaning and food preservation. Appliances are divided into three ty ...

s, and

medical equipment A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

. As a semiconductor company and the inventor of

flash memory Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both us ...

, Toshiba had been one of the top 10 in the chip industry until its flash memory unit was spun off as Toshiba Memory, later

Kioxia Kioxia Holdings Corporation (), simply known as Kioxia and stylized as KIOXIA, is an American-Japanese multinational computer memory manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was spun off from the Toshiba conglomerate as in June ...

, in the late 2010s. The Toshiba name is derived from its former name, Tokyo Shibaura Denki K.K. (Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co., Ltd) which in turn was a 1939 merger between Shibaura Seisaku-sho (founded in 1875) and

Tokyo Denki was a company established by Shōichi Miyoshi and Fujioka Ichisuke, two of Japan's industrial pioneers during the Tokugawa / Edo period. It specialized in the manufacture of light bulbs. The company was established in 1890, and started out by sel ...

(founded in 1890). The company name was officially changed to Toshiba Corporation in 1978. It is listed on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed co ...

, where it was a constituent of the

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It has been calculated daily by the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' (''The Nikkei'') newspaper since 1950 ...

and

TOPIX , commonly known as TOPIX, along with the Nikkei 225, is an important stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Japan, tracking all domestic companies of the exchange's Prime market division. It is calculated and published by the T ...

100 indices (leaving both in August 2018, but returned to the latter in 2021), and the

Nagoya Stock Exchange Nagoya Stock Exchange (名古屋証券取引所 ''Nagoya Shōken Torihikijo'', NSE) is a stock trading market in Nagoya, Japan. It is Japan's second largest exchange, behind the Tokyo Stock Exchange. History The Nagoya Stock Exchange (NSE) is t ...

. A

technology company A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services. Details According to ''Fo ...

with a long history and sprawling businesses, Toshiba is a household name in Japan and has long been viewed as a symbol of the country's technological prowess. Its reputation has since been affected following an accounting scandal in 2015 and the bankruptcy of subsidiary energy company Westinghouse in 2017, after which it was forced to shed a number of underperforming businesses, essentially eliminating the company's century-long presence in consumer markets. Toshiba announced on 12 November 2021 that it would split into three separate companies, respectively focusing on infrastructure, electronic devices, and all other remaining assets; the latter would retain the Toshiba name. It expected to complete the plan by March 2024. But the plan was challenged by stockholders, and at an extraordinary general meeting on 24 March 2022, they rejected the plan. They also rejected an alternative plan put forward by a large institutional investor that would have had the company search for buyers among private equity firms.

History

Tanaka Seisakusho

was the first company established by

Tanaka Hisashige was a Japanese rangaku scholar, engineer and inventor during the Bakumatsu and early Meiji period in Japan. In 1875, he founded what became the Toshiba Corporation. He has been called the "Thomas Edison of Japan" or "Karakuri Giemon." Biograp ...

(1799–1881), one of the most original and productive inventor-engineers during the Tokugawa /

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. Established on July 11, 1875, it was the first Japanese company to manufacture

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

equipment. It also manufactured switches, and miscellaneous electrical and communications equipment. The company was inherited by Tanaka's adopted son, and later became half of the present Toshiba company. Several people who worked at Tanaka Seisakusho or who received Tanaka's guidance at a Kubusho (Ministry of Industries) factory later became pioneers themselves. These included

Miyoshi Shōichi Miyoshi may refer to: Places *Miyoshi, Aichi, a city in Aichi Prefecture *Miyoshi, Chiba, a former village in Chiba Prefecture *Miyoshi, Hiroshima, a city in Hiroshima Prefecture *Miyoshi, Saitama, a town in Saitama Prefecture *Miyoshi, Tokushima, ...

who helped Fujioka make the first power generator in Japan and to establish a company,

Hakunetsusha was a company established by Shōichi Miyoshi and Fujioka Ichisuke, two of Japan's industrial pioneers during the Tokugawa / Edo period. It specialized in the manufacture of light bulbs. The company was established in 1890, and started out by s ...

to make bulbs;

Oki Kibatarō was an engineer formerly employed at a Japanese Ministry of Industry (Japan), Ministry of Industry (''Kōbushō'') factory. In 1877, only a year after Alexander Graham Bell's invention, ''Kōbushō'' had started an effort to make telephone rece ...

, the founder of the present Oki Denki ( Oki Electric Industry); and

Ishiguro Keizaburō Ishiguro (written: lit. "black stone") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aya Ishiguro (:ja:石黒彩, 石黒彩) (born 1978), a.k.a. Ayappe, singer * Hidé Ishiguro, Philosopher * Hideo Ishiguro (:ja:石黒英雄, ...

, a co-founder of the present

Anritsu is a Japanese multinational corporation in the telecommunications electronics equipment market. A global pioneer for producing the world's first wireless telephone network, Anritsu's revenue numbers near US$782 million. History In Japan, Anri ...

. After the demise of the founder in 1881 Tanaka Seisakusho became partly owned by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

and expanded into the production of

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

es and mines at the request of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

, to become one of the largest manufacturing companies of the time. However, as the Navy started to use competitive bids and then build its own works, the demand decreased substantially and the company started to lose money. The main creditor to the company, Mitsui Bank, took over the insolvent company in 1893 and renamed it

Shibaura Seisakusho was the new name given to the company Tanaka Seisakusho (Tanaka Engineering Works), after it was declared insolvent in 1893 and taken over by Mitsui Bank. In 1910, it formed a tie-up with GE USA, which, in exchange for technology acquired about ...

(Shibaura Engineering Works).

Shibaura Seisakusho

was the new name given to Tanaka Seisakusho after it was declared insolvent in 1893 and taken over by Mitsui Bank. In 1910, it formed a tie-up with

(GE), which, in exchange for technology, acquired about a quarter of the shares of Shibaura. The relation with GE continued until the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and resumed in 1953 with GE's 24 percent shareholding in the successor company, Tokyo Shibaura Denki. This percentage decreased substantially since then.

Hakunetsusha (Tokyo Denki)

was a company established by

Shōichi Miyoshi Shōichi, Shoichi or Shouichi (written: , , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer and editor *, Japanese professional wrestling announcer and executive *, Japanese professi ...

and

Fujioka Ichisuke Fujioka may refer to: *Fujioka, Aichi, a former town located in Nishikamo District, Aichi, Japan *Fujioka, Gunma, a city in Gunma, Japan *Fujioka, Tochigi was a town located in Shimotsuga District, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. As of 2003, the to ...

, two of Japan's industrial pioneers during the Tokugawa /

. It specialized in the manufacture of light bulbs. The company was established in 1890 and started out by selling bulbs using bamboo filaments. However, following the opening up of trade with the West through the

Unequal treaty Unequal treaty is the name given by the Chinese to a series of treaties signed during the 19th and early 20th centuries, between China (mostly referring to the Qing dynasty) and various Western powers (specifically the British Empire, France, the ...

met with fierce competition from imports. Its bulb cost about 60 percent more than the imports and the quality was poorer. The company managed to survive with the booms after the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

of 1894–95 and the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

of 1904–05, but afterward its financial position was precarious. In 1905 the company was renamed

(Tokyo Electric) and entered into a financial and technological collaboration with

of the US. General Electric acquired 51 percent share of ownership, sent a vice president, and provided the technology for bulb-making. Production equipment was bought from GE and Tokyo Denki soon started selling its products with GE's trademark.

1939 to 2000

Toshiba was founded in 1939 by the merger of Shibaura Seisakusho and Tokyo Denki. The merger of Shibaura and Tokyo Denki created a new company called Tokyo Shibaura Denki (Tokyo Shibaura Electric) (). It was soon nicknamed Toshiba, but it was not until 1978 that the company was officially renamed Toshiba Corporation. Expo85 toshiba

The group expanded rapidly, driven by a combination of organic growth and by acquisitions, buying heavy engineering, and primary industry firms in the 1940s and 1950s. Groups created include Toshiba Music Industries/Toshiba EMI (1960), Toshiba International Corporation (the 1970s) 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 (1912), the TAC digital computer (1954), transistor television, color CRTs and microwave oven (1959), color video phone (1971), Japanese

word processor A word processor (WP) is a device or computer program that provides for input, editing, formatting, and output of text, often with some additional features. Word processor (electronic device), Early word processors were stand-alone devices ded ...

(1978), MRI system (1982), laptop personal computer (1986), NAND EEPROM (1991), DVD (1995), the

Libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

sub-notebook personal computer (1996) and HD DVD (2005). In 1977, Toshiba acquired the Brazilian company Semp (Sociedade Eletromercantil Paulista), subsequently forming Semp Toshiba through the combination of the two companies' South American operations. TOSHIBA Logo 1950

In 1987, Tocibai Machine, a subsidiary of Toshiba, was accused of illegally selling CNC milling machines used to produce very quiet

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

propellers to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

, and resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two senior executives, as well as the imposition of sanctions on the company by both countries. Senator

John Heinz Henry John Heinz III (October 23, 1938 – April 4, 1991) was an American businessman and Republican politician from Pennsylvania. Heinz represented the Pittsburgh suburbs in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1977 and ...

of Pennsylvania said "What Toshiba and Kongsberg did was ransom the security of the United States for $517 million." TOSHIBA JW-10

2000 to 2010

In 2001, Toshiba signed a contract with

Orion Electric was a Japanese consumer electronics company that was established in 1958 in Osaka, Japan. Their devices were branded as "Orion". The company used to be called Orion Electric, until Brain and Capital Holdings, Inc. (Japanese company) acquired it ...

, one of the world's largest

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

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 seven years of OEM production with Orion. In December 2004, Toshiba quietly announced it would discontinue manufacturing traditional in-house

cathode-ray tube A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms (oscilloscope), pictur ...

(CRT) televisions. In 2005, Matsushita Toshiba Picture Display Co. Ltd. (a joint venture between Panasonic and Toshiba created in 2002) stopped production of CRTs at its factory in Horseheads, New York. A year later, in 2006, it stopped production at its Malaysian factory, following heavy losses. In 2006, Toshiba terminated sales of CRT TVs in Japan and production of in-house plasma TVs. 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. This technology, however, was never sold to the public, as it was not price-competitive with LCDs. Toshiba sold its share in SED Inc. to Canon after Nano-Proprietary, which owns several patents related to SED technology, claimed SED Inc. was not a subsidiary of Canon. Before

, Toshiba was a member of the Mitsui Group zaibatsu ( family-controlled

vertical monopoly In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the supply ...

). Today Toshiba is a member of the Mitsui

keiretsu A is a set of companies with interlocking business relationships and shareholdings. In the legal sense, it is a type of informal business group that are loosely organized alliances within the social world of Japan's business community. The ''ke ...

(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 Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

the employees consume, which in Toshiba's case is

Asahi Asahi (朝日, 旭, or あさひ) means "morning sun" in Japanese and may refer to: Cities * Asahi, Chiba (旭市; ''Asahi-shi'') Wards * Asahi-ku, Osaka (旭区; ''Asahi-ku'') * Asahi-ku, Yokohama (旭; ''Asahi-ku'') Towns * Asahi, Aichi (旭� ...

. In July 2005,

BNFL British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) was a nuclear energy and fuels company owned by the UK Government. It was a manufacturer of nuclear fuel (notably MOX), ran reactors, generated and sold electricity, reprocessed and managed spent fuel (mainly ...

confirmed it planned to sell Westinghouse Electric Company, then estimated to be worth $1.8 billion (£1 billion). The bid attracted interest from several companies including Toshiba,

and

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

and when the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' reported on 23 January 2006 that Toshiba had won the bid, it valued the company's offer at $5 billion (£2.8 billion). 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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the

and the

were all expected to invest heavily in nuclear power. The acquisition of Westinghouse for $5.4 billion was completed on 17 October 2006, with Toshiba obtaining a 77 percent share, and partners

The Shaw Group The Shaw Group is a pipe and module fabrication firm specializing in induction bending. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Shaw employs approximately 700 people across its offices and operations in North America and the Middle East. History Sha ...

a 20 percent share and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. a 3 percent share. In late 2007, Toshiba took over from Discover Card as the sponsor of the top-most screen of One Times Square in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It displays the iconic 60-second

New Year's The expression New Year's is a colloquial term with unclear definition. It may mean any or all of the following: * * ** * ** New Year's Day#Traditional and modern celebrations and customs * * * (2 January) See also * New Year's Day (disamb ...

countdown on its screen, as well as messages, greetings, and advertisements for the company. The sponsor of the New Year's countdown was taken over by Capital One on 31 December 2018. In January 2009, Toshiba acquired the HDD business of

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

2010 to 2014

Toshiba announced on 16 May 2011, that it had agreed to acquire all of the shares of the Swiss-based advanced-power-meter maker

Landis+Gyr Landis is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Arthur H. Landis, American science fiction and fantasy writer * Bill Landis, American baseball player *Carole Landis, American film actress *Charles B. Landis, U.S. Representative from ...

for $2.3 billion. In 2010 the company released a series of television models including the WL768, YL863, VL963 designed in collaboration with Danish designer

Timothy Jacob Jensen Timothy Jacob Jensen (born 27 April 1962) is a Danish industrial designer. He was best known as CEO and Chief Designer of Jacob Jensen Design (Scandinavia’s oldest design studio) from 1990 to 2018. Jensen was also the founder of the Scandinavia ...

. In April 2012, Toshiba agreed to acquire IBM's point-of-sale business for $850 million, making it the world's largest vendor of point-of-sale systems. In July 2012, Toshiba was accused of fixing the prices of LCD panels in the United States at a high level. While such claims were denied by Toshiba, they agreed to settle alongside several other manufacturers for a total of $571 million. In December 2013, Toshiba completed its acquisition of Vijai Electricals Limited plant at Hyderabad and set up its own base for manufacturing of transmission and distribution products (transformers and switchgears) under the Social Infrastructure Group in India as Toshiba Transmission & Distribution Systems (India) Private Limited. In January 2014, Toshiba completed its acquisition of

OCZ Storage Solutions OCZ was a brand of Toshiba that was used for some of its solid-state drives (SSDs) before they were rebranded with Toshiba. OCZ Storage Solutions was a manufacturer of SSDs based in San Jose, California, USA and was the new company formed after ...

. OCZ Technology stock was halted on 27 November 2013. OCZ then stated they expected to file a petition for bankruptcy and that Toshiba Corporation had expressed interest in purchasing its assets in a bankruptcy proceeding. On 2 December 2013, OCZ announced Toshiba had agreed to purchase nearly all of OCZ's assets for $35 million. The deal was completed on 21 January 2014 when the assets of OCZ Technology Group became a new independently operated subsidiary of Toshiba named OCZ Storage Solutions. OCZ Technology Group then changed its name to ZCO Liquidating Corporation; on 18 August 2014, ZCO Liquidating Corporation and its subsidiaries were liquidated.

was dissolved on 1 April 2016 and absorbed into Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., with OCZ becoming a brand of Toshiba. In March 2014, Toshiba sued

SK Hynix SK hynix Inc. is a South Korean supplier of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips and flash memory chips. Hynix is the world's second-largest memory chipmaker (after Samsung Electronics) and the world's third-largest semiconductor company ...

, accusing the company of stealing technology of its NAND flash memory. In the late same year, the two companies settled with a deal in which SK Hynix pays US$278 million to Toshiba. Toshiba had sued Hynix in the early 2000s for

patent infringement Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...

. In October 2014, Toshiba and United Technologies agreed a deal to expand their joint venture outside

2015 accounting scandal

Toshiba first announced in May 2015 that it was investigating an accounting scandal and it might have to revise its profits for the previous three years. On 21 July 2015, CEO Hisao Tanaka announced his resignation amid an accounting scandal that he called "the most damaging event for our brand in the company's 140-year history". Profits had been inflated by $1.2 billion over the previous seven years. Eight other senior officials also resigned, including the two previous CEOs. Chairman Masashi Muromachi was appointed acting CEO. Following the scandal, Toshiba Corp. was removed from a stock index showcasing Japan's best companies. That was the second reshuffle of the index, which picks companies with the best operating income, return on equity and market value. Toshiba announced in early 2015 that they would stop making televisions in its own factories. From 2015 onward, Toshiba televisions will be made by Compal for the U.S., or by

Vestel Vestel is a Turkish home and professional appliances manufacturing company consisting of 18 companies specialised in electronics, major appliances and information technology. Vestel's headquarters and production plant are located in Manisa, while ...

and other manufacturers for the European market. In September 2015, Toshiba shares fell to their lowest point in two and a half years. The firm said in a statement that its net losses for the quarterly period were 12.3 billion yen ($102m; £66m). The company noted poor performances in its televisions, home appliances and personal computer businesses. In October 2015, Toshiba sold the image sensor business to

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

. In December 2015, Muromachi said the episode had wiped about $8 billion off Toshiba's market value. He forecast a record 550 billion yen (about US$4.6 billion) annual loss and warned the company would have to overhaul its TV and computer businesses. Toshiba would not be raising funds for two years, he said. The next week, a company spokesperson announced Toshiba would seek 300 billion yen ($2.5 billion) in 2016, taking the company's indebtedness to more than 1 trillion yen (about $8.3 billion). In January 2016, Toshiba's security division unveiled a new bundle of services for schools that use its surveillance equipment. The program, which is intended for both K-12 and higher education, includes education discounts, alerts, and post-warranty support, among other features, on its IP-based security gear. In March 2016, Toshiba was preparing to start construction on a cutting-edge new semiconductor plant in Japan that would mass-produce chips based on the ultra-dense flash variant. Toshiba expected to spend approximately 360 billion yen, or $3.2 billion, on the project through May 2019. In April 2016, Toshiba recalled 100,000 faulty laptop lithium-ion batteries, which were made by Panasonic, that can overheat, posing burn and fire hazards to consumers, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Toshiba first announced the recall in January and said it was recalling the batteries in certain Toshiba Notebook computers sold since June 2011. In May 2016, it was announced that Satoshi Tsunakawa, the former head of Toshiba's medical equipment division, was named CEO. This appointment came after the accounting scandal that occurred. In September 2016, Toshiba announced the first wireless power receiver IC using the Qi 1.2.2 specification, developed in association with the

Wireless Power Consortium The Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) is a multinational technology consortium formed on December 17, 2008, and based in Piscataway, New Jersey. Its mission is to create and promote wide market adoption of its interface standards Qi, Ki Cordless ...

. In December 2016,

Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation Canon Medical Systems Corporation is a medical equipment company based in Ōtawara, Tochigi, Japan. Formerly known as Toshiba Medical, a subsidiary of Toshiba, the company was an early pioneer on X-ray tubes in 1914 in Japan. Canon Medical Sy ...

was acquired by Canon. A Chinese electrical appliance corporation Midea Group bought a controlling 80.1% stake in the Toshiba Home Appliances Group.

2017 US nuclear construction liabilities

In late December 2016, the management of Toshiba requested an "urgent press briefing" to announce that the newly-found losses in the Westinghouse subsidiary from Vogtle Electric Generating Plant nuclear plant construction would lead to a write-down of several billion dollars, bankrupting Westinghouse and threatening to bankrupt Toshiba. The exact amount of the liabilities was unavailable. In January 2017, a person with direct knowledge of the matter reported that the company plans on making its memory chip division a separate business, to save Toshiba from bankruptcy. In February 2017, Toshiba revealed unaudited details of a 390 billion yen ($3.4 billion) corporate wide loss, mainly arising from its majority owned US based Westinghouse nuclear construction subsidiary which was written down by 712 billion yen ($6.3 billion). On 14 February 2017, Toshiba delayed filing financial results, and chairman Shigenori Shiga, formerly chairman of Westinghouse, resigned. Construction delays, regulatory changes and cost overruns at Westinghouse-built nuclear facilities Vogtle units 3 and 4 in Waynesboro, Georgia and VC Summer units 2 and 3 in South Carolina, were cited as the main causes of the dramatic fall in Toshiba's financial performance and collapse in the share price. Fixed priced construction contracts negotiated by Westinghouse with Georgia Power left Toshiba with uncharted liabilities that resulted in the sale of key Toshiba operating subsidiaries to secure the company's future. Westinghouse filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

protection on 29 March 2017. Toshiba was estimated to have 9 billion dollar annual net loss. On 11 April 2017, Toshiba filed unaudited quarterly results. Auditors

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers is an international professional services brand of firms, operating as partnerships under the PwC brand. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is considered one of the Big Four accounting ...

had not signed of the accounts because of uncertainties at Westinghouse. Toshiba stated that "substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern exists". On 25 April 2017, Toshiba announced its decision to replace its auditor after less than a year. Earlier in April, the company filed twice-delayed business results without an endorsement from auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). On 20 September 2017, Toshiba's board approved a deal to sell its memory chip business to a group led by Bain Capital for US$18 billion, with financial backing by companies such as

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

Dell Technologies Dell Technologies Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Round Rock, Texas. It was formed as a result of the September 2016 merger of Dell and EMC Corporation (which later became Dell EMC). Dell's products inc ...

, Hoya Corporation, Kingston Technology,

Seagate Technology Seagate Technology Holdings plc is an American data storage company. It was incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology and commenced business in 1979. Since 2010, the company has been incorporated in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquart ...

, and

. The newly independent company was named

Toshiba Memory Corporation Kioxia Holdings Corporation (), simply known as Kioxia and stylized as KIOXIA, is an American-Japanese multinational computer memory manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company was spun off from the Toshiba conglomerate as in June ...

, and then renamed

. On 15 November 2017, Hisense reached a deal to acquire 95% of Toshiba Visual Solutions (

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

s) for US$113.6 million. Later that month, the company announced that it would pull out of its long-standing sponsorships of the Japanese television programs '' Sazae-san'', ''Nichiyō Gekijo'', and the video screens topping out One Times Square in

. The company cited that the value of these placements were reduced by its exit from consumer-oriented lines of business. On 6 April 2018, Toshiba announced the completion of the sale of Westinghouse's holding company to

Brookfield Business Partners Brookfield Business Partners L.P. is a publicly traded limited partnership and the primary public vehicle through which Brookfield Asset Management, its parent company, owns and operates the business services and industrial operations of its pr ...

and some partners for $4.6 billion.

Present and future

File:Lazona Kawasaki Toshiba Building.jpg, Toshiba Science Museum in Kawasaki, Japan File:Toshiba Himeji.jpg, Toshiba factory in

Taishi Taishi may refer to: Names *Taishi (surname), Chinese family name *Taishi (given name), Japanese given name Ranks * Grand Preceptor, ancient Chinese top civilian position: ''taishi'' () in Chinese *Taishi, an alternate name of the Japanese Daij� ...

, Japan File:Elevator Research Tower of Toshiba Fuchu Complex.jpg, Elevator Research Tower of Toshiba Fuchu Complex. The largest factory complex in the Toshiba organization File:Toshiba Rinkan Hospital.jpg, Toshiba Rinkan Hospital, Kanagawa, Japan In June 2018, Toshiba sold 80.1% of its Client Solutions (

s) business unit to

Sharp Sharp or SHARP may refer to: Acronyms * SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme * Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 199 ...

for $36m, with an option allowing Sharp to buy the remaining 19.9% share. Sharp renamed the business to

Dynabook The KiddiComp concept, envisioned by Alan Kay in 1968 while a PhD candidate, and later developed and described as the Dynabook in his 1972 proposal "A personal computer for children of all ages", outlines the requirements for a conceptual portabl ...

, a brand name Toshiba had used in Japan, and started releasing products under that name. On June 30, 2020, Sharp exercised its option to acquire the remaining 19.9% percent of Dynabook shares from Toshiba. In May 2019, Toshiba announced that it would put non-Japanese investors on its board for the first time in nearly 80 years. In November, the company transferred its logistics service business to SBS Group. In January 2020, Toshiba unveiled its plan to launch quantum cryptography services by September the same year. It also announced a number of other technologies waiting for commercialization, including an affordable solid-state

Lidar Lidar (, also LIDAR, or LiDAR; sometimes LADAR) is a method for determining ranges (variable distance) by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected light to return to the receiver. It can also be ...

based on silicon photomultiplier, high-capacity

hydrogen fuel cells A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen fuel, hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most bat ...

, and a proprietary

computer algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ca ...

named ''Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm'' that mimics

quantum computing Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...

, of which it plans to sell access to other parties such as financial institutions, social networking services, etc. The company claims the algorithm running on a desktop PC at room temperature environment is capable of surpassing the performance of similar algorithms running on existing

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

s, even that of laser-based quantum computer when a specialized setting is given. It has been added to quantum computing services offered by major cloud platforms including

Microsoft Azure Microsoft Azure, often referred to as Azure ( , ), is a cloud computing platform operated by Microsoft for application management via around the world-distributed data centers. Microsoft Azure has multiple capabilities such as software as a ...

. In October 2020, Toshiba made a decision to pull out of the system

LSI LSI may refer to: Science and technology * Large-scale integration, integrated circuits with tens of thousands of transistors * Latent semantic indexing, a technique in natural language processing * LSI-11, an early large-scale integration com ...

business citing mounted losses while reportedly mulling on the sale of its semiconductor fabs as well. In April 2021,

CVC Capital Partners CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based French private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$133 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, E ...

made a takeover offer. On November 12, 2021, Toshiba announced that it would split into three separate companies. Two of the companies will respectively focus on infrastructure and electronic devices; the third, which will retain the Toshiba name, would manage the 40.6% stake in

and all other remaining assets. The company expects to complete the plan by March 2024. Toshiba announced in February 2022 that it plans to split into two companies instead after the original proposal proved unpopular with shareholders.

Operations

File:TOSHIBA research and development center Komukaitoshiba.jpg, The Toshiba research and development facility in

Kawasaki, Kanagawa is a Cities of Japan, city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, one of the main cities of Greater Tokyo Area and Keihin Industrial Area. It is the second most populated city in Kanagawa Prefecture after Yokohama, and the List of cities in Japan, eight ...

, Japan File:TEG Gebaeude.jpg, Toshiba Europe offices in

Neuss Neuss (; spelled ''Neuß'' until 1968; li, Nüss ; la, Novaesium) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located on the west bank of the Rhine opposite Düsseldorf. Neuss is the largest city within the Rhein-Kreis Neuss district. It ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

File:ToshibaCanada2.jpg, Toshiba Canada offices As of 2012, Toshiba had 39 R&D facilities worldwide, which employed around 4,180 people, and was organized into four main business groupings: the Digital Products Group, the Electronic Devices Group, the Home Appliances Group and the Social Infrastructure Group. In the year ended 31 March 2012, Toshiba had total revenues of , of which 25.2 percent was generated by the Digital Products Group, 24.5 percent by the Electronic Devices Group, 8.7 percent by the Home Appliances Group, 36.6 percent by the Social Infrastructure Group and 5 percent by other activities. In the same year, 45 percent of Toshiba's sales were generated in Japan and 55 percent in the rest of the world. Toshiba invested a total of in R&D in the year ended 31 March 2012, equivalent to 5.2 percent of sales. Toshiba registered a total of 2,483 patents in the United States in 2011, the fifth-largest number of any company (after IBM,

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...

, Canon and Panasonic). Toshiba had around 141,256 employees as of 31 March 2018.

Products, services, and standards

Toshiba has had a range of products and services, including air conditioners, consumer electronics (including televisions and DVD and Blu-ray players), control systems (including air-traffic control systems, railway systems, security systems and traffic control systems), electronic point of sale equipment, elevators and escalators, home appliances (including refrigerators and washing machines), IT services, lighting, materials and electronic components, medical equipment (including CT and MRI scanners, ultrasound equipment and X-ray equipment), office equipment, business telecommunication equipment personal computers, semiconductors, power systems (including electricity turbines, fuel cells and nuclear reactors) power transmission and distribution systems, and TFT displays. File:Toshiba 748.jpg, Toshiba television File:Toshiba BDX 2250 Wi-Fi Blu-ray Disc Player.jpg, Toshiba

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

Disc Player File:IFA 2005 Toshiba HBS A 001 HD-DVD Player (Dual-Layer HD-DVD 30GB) and (DVD-HD-DVD-Twin-Disc 5GB 15GB) (by HDTVTotalDOTcom).jpg, Toshiba HD-DVD Player File:Toshiba Qosmio X70-A-12N PSPLTE-2895.jpg,

Toshiba Qosmio The Qosmio series (dynabook Qosmio in Japan) was Toshiba's consumer-marketed line of high performance desktop replacement laptops. The laptop was first released on July 25, 2004 as the E15-AV101 with a 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium M CPU, 512 me ...

notebook File:Verpackung einer MicroSD-Speicherkarte.jpg, Toshiba

microSD Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

card File:Toshiba THN-U301W0320A4 20170814b.jpg, Toshiba USB flash drive File:Fujitsu docomo REGZA Phone Licensed by TOSHIBA T-01D Black Back.JPG, Fujitsu Toshiba

Regza , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure syste ...

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

File:TOSHIBA Microwave Oven ER-J3 .jpg, Toshiba microwave oven File:東芝の炊飯器 RCK-10GF 20110604.jpg, Toshiba rice cooker File:2017-09-19 (304) Air conditioner Toshiba RAV-SP564AT-E at Bahnhof Melk.jpg, Toshiba Air conditioner File:Batt-6F22KG-Toshiba--21lyeyxy.jpg, Toshiba battery File:Toshiba SCiB cell in Tokyo Motor Show 2011.jpg, Toshiba SCiB

rechargeable battery A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of Accumulator (energy), energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to ...

File:T9769A 01.jpg, Toshiba T9769A integrated circuit File:Toshiba MK4313MAT HDD (dark1).jpg, Toshiba hard disk File:Томограф в коронавирусном стационаре при Сеченовском университете.jpg, Toshiba Aquilion Prime CT scanner File:TOSHIBA, MRI Vantage Titan MRT-2004,.jpg, Toshiba Vantage Titan MRT-2004 MRI scanner File:MedicalSonographicScanner.jpg, Toshiba medical ultrasound scanner File:New Year Ball Drop Event for 2012 at Times Square.jpg, ToshibaVision screen in use during the

ball drop The Times Square Ball is a time ball located in New York City's Times Square. Located on the roof of One Times Square, the ball is a prominent part of a New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square commonly referred to as the ball drop, where the ...

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

from 2008 to 2018 File:台北101的升降機.JPG, Toshiba elevator in

Taipei 101 Taipei 101 (; stylized as TAIPEI 101), formerly known as the Taipei World Financial Center, is a supertall skyscraper in Taipei, Taiwan. This building was officially classified as the world's tallest from its opening in 2004 until the 2009 ...

File:HK 葵青區 Kwai Tsing 青荃路 Tsing Tsuen Road 青衣城 Maritime Square 2 Two shopping mall escalators April 2022 Px3 05.jpg, Toshiba escalators File:JRF-HD300-901-00.jpg, Toshiba locomotive

Class HD300 The is a Hybrid vehicle, hybrid diesel/battery Bo-Bo wheel arrangement Switcher, shunting locomotive type operated by Japan Freight Railway Company (JR Freight) in Japan. Following the delivery and evaluation of a prototype locomotive in March ...

File:JGSDF Type 93 Surface-to-air missile(04-4187) right front view at Camp Shinodayama April 16, 2017 03.jpg, Toshiba Type 93 surface-to-air missile File:Type 81 SAM - launcher.jpg, Toshiba Tan-SAM Type 81 SAM 6 x 6 launcher File:ABWR Toshiba 1.jpg, Model of the nuclear power plant from Toshiba with Advanced boiling water reactor

HD DVD

Toshiba had played a critical role in the development and proliferation of

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

. On 19 February 2008, Toshiba announced that it would be discontinuing its HD DVD storage format, the successor of DVD, following defeat in a format war against

. The HD DVD format had failed after most of the major US film studios backed the Blu-ray format, which was developed by

, Panasonic,

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

and Pioneer Corporation. Conceding the abandonment of HD DVD, Toshiba's president,

Atsutoshi Nishida was a Japanese business executive. Early life Born on 29 December 1943 in Mie Prefecture, Nishida earned a bachelor's degree from Waseda University and completed graduate work at the University of Tokyo. He married an Iranian woman shortly after ...

said "We concluded that a swift decision would be best ndif 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 announced a new line of stand-alone Blu-ray players as well as drives for PCs and laptops, and subsequently joined the BDA, the industry body which oversees the development of the Blu-ray format.

REGZA

REGZA (Real Expression Guaranteed by Amazing Architecture) is a unified television brand owned and manufactured by Toshiba. In 2010 REGZA name disappeared from the North American market, and from March 2015 new TVs carrying the Toshiba name are designed and produced by

Compal Electronics Compal Electronics () is a Taiwanese original design manufacturer (ODM), handling the production of notebook computers, monitors, tablets and televisions for a variety of clients around the world, including Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc., Acer, Le ...

, a Taiwanese company, to which Toshiba has licensed its name. REGZA is also used in

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

-based smartphones that were developed by Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications.

3D television

In October 2010, Toshiba unveiled the Toshiba Regza GL1 21" LED-backlit LCD TV glasses-free 3D prototype at

CEATEC Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (also known as CEATEC) is an annual trade show in Japan. It is regarded as the Japanese equivalent of Consumer Electronics Show. It is Japan's largest IT and electronics exhibition and conference. H ...

2010. This system supports 3D capability without glasses (utilizing an integral imaging system of 9 parallax images with a vertical lenticular sheet). The retail product was released in December 2010.

4K Ultra HD televisions

4K Ultra HD Ultra-high-definition television (also known as Ultra HD television, Ultra HD, UHDTV, UHD and Super Hi-Vision) today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These were first proposed by ...

(3840×2160p) televisions provides four times the resolution of 1080p Full HD televisions. Toshiba's 4K HD LED televisions are powered by a CEVO 4K Quad + dual-core processor.

Laptops

In 1985, Toshiba released the T1100, the world's first commercially accepted

laptop PC A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

. In October 2014, Toshiba released the Chromebook 2, a new version with a thinner profile and a much-improved display. The Chromebook runs exclusively on ChromeOS and gives users free Google Drive storage and access to a collection of apps and extensions at the Chrome Web Store. Toshiba initialized process of divestment of the personal computer and laptop business, Toshiba Client Solutions, in 2018 with sale of 80.1% of shares to

Sharp Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more than 5 ...

. Eventually Toshiba fully exited from the personal computing market in June 2020, transferring the remaining 19.9% shares in Toshiba Client Solutions (since being renamed to

Dynabook Inc. , formerly Toshiba Client Solutions Co., Ltd., is a Japanese personal computer manufacturer owned by Sharp Corporation; it was owned by, and branded as, Toshiba from 1958 to 2018. It claims its Toshiba T1100, launched in 1985, as the first mass-m ...

) to Sharp. Divested personal computing business of Toshiba has adopted Dynabook name after one of its product lines and a concept of a computer for children.

Flash memory

In the 1980s, a Toshiba team led by

Fujio Masuoka is a Japanese engineer, who has worked for Toshiba and Tohoku University, and is currently chief technical officer (CTO) of Unisantis Electronics. He is best known as the inventor of flash memory, including the development of both the NOR flash ...

invented

, both NOR and NAND types. In March 2015, Toshiba announced the development of the first 48-layer, three-dimensional flash memory. The new flash memory is based on a vertical stacking technology that Toshiba calls BiCS (Bit Cost Scaling), stores two bits of data per transistor, and can store 128Gbits (16GB) per chip. This allowed flash memory to keep scaling up the capacity as

Moore's Law Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empir ...

was considered to be obsolete. Toshiba's memory division was spun off as

, now

Environmental record

Toshiba has been judged as making "low" efforts to lessen its impact on the environment. In November 2012, they came second from the bottom in

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...

's 18th edition of the Guide to Greener Electronics that ranks electronics companies according to their policies on products, energy, and sustainable operations. Toshiba received 2.3 of a possible 10 points, with the top company (

WIPRO Wipro Limited (formerly, Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited) is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. Thierry Delaporte is serving as CEO and managing director ...

) receiving 7.1 points. "Zero" scores were received in the categories "Clean energy policy advocacy", "Use of recycled plastics in products" and "Policy and practice on

sustainable sourcing Globalization of supply chains and pressure to lower production costs have negatively impacted environments and communities around the world, especially in developing nations where production of high demand goods is increasingly taking place. Since ...

of fibres for paper". In 2010, Toshiba reported that all of its new LCD TVs comply with the Energy Star standards and 34 models exceed the requirements by 30% or more. 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. 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. Through this partnership, Toshiba hopes to develop products that will better protect the environment and save China. This contract between Tsinghua University and Toshiba originally began in October 2007 when they signed an agreement on joint energy and environment research. The projects that they conduct work to reduce car pollution and to create power systems that don't negatively affect the environment. On 28 December 1970 Toshiba began the construction of unit 3 of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant which was damaged in the

Fukushima I nuclear accidents The was a nuclear accident in 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan. The proximate cause of the disaster was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which occurred on the afternoon of 11 March 2011 and ...

on 14 March 2011. In April 2011, CEO Norio Sasaki declared nuclear energy would "remain as a strong option" even after the Fukushima I nuclear accidents. In late 2013, Toshiba (Japan) entered the solar power business in Germany, installing PV systems on apartment buildings.

References

External links

* *Business data for Tōshiba (TYO:6502) a
Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc.
*Business data for Tōshiba (NAG:6502) a

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