Toshiba was delisted.
*Asahi Shimbun English website
Japan's Toshiba Corporation will be delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on the same day, ending a 74-year history of listing since 1949, according to Japan's Asahi Shimbun.
Older friends may remember this advertising slogan: "TOSHIBA, TOSHIBA, Toshiba in the new era." ”
In the eighties and nineties of the last century, Toshiba's advertising slogan swept all over China, when Toshiba's color TVs, washing machines, and refrigerators were the three major items that countless families yearned for.
As Toshiba continues to decline, some netizens changed the advertising slogan to: "Delisted, delisted, Toshiba in the old era." ”
*Sina Weibo
Now, the old Toshiba is really out of the market.
Toshiba has a long history, and it was formed by the merger of two companies, one called Shibaura Works, which was founded in 1875, and the other called Tokyo Densho, which was founded in 1896.
In 1939, Tokyo Electric and Shibaura Manufacturing Co., Ltd. merged to form Toshiba Corporation, and in 1949, Toshiba was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
At one time, Toshiba created many "firsts in Japan", including Japan's first radar, Japan's first transistor TV and microwave oven, the first color video telephone, the first laptop, the first DVD, etc.
At its peak, Toshiba was one of the most influential companies of the 20th century, with revenues of $53 billion in 1996, ranking 32nd in the world.
*Sina Weibo
How did such a powerful enterprise get to where it is today?
In the 21st century, Toshiba's various businesses are facing challenges from Chinese companies, and they are gradually unable to do so, and they urgently need to expand new businesses.
At that time, the construction of nuclear power plants caused a boom in countries around the world, and Toshiba turned its attention to the nuclear power business.
Westinghouse Electric Company, an American nuclear reactor manufacturer, has provided nuclear power technology for American aircraft carriers, and has also customized professional world nuclear standards.
In 2006, Toshiba planned to acquire a 77 percent stake in Westinghouse Electric in the United States, and Westinghouse offered $1.8 billion, and Toshiba expected $2 billion to get it.
As a result, General Electric and Mitsubishi joined halfway, making the bidding extremely fierce, and although Toshiba eventually made the acquisition, it cost $7 billion, far exceeding expectations.
After the acquisition, Toshiba's situation is still very good, and there is an endless stream of nuclear power orders, so Toshiba CEO Nishida Takatoshi estimates that this acquisition will pay for itself in about ten years.
As it turned out later, President Nishida was too optimistic, and they would never be able to recoup their original cost with this acquisition.
Two years later, the global financial crisis erupted, and Toshiba was also affected, losing $2.3 billion.
But the bigger crisis came three years later, in 2011, when the 311 earthquake struck Japan, and all six reactors at Toshiba's Fukushima nuclear power plant exploded.
The accident hit Toshiba hard, not only the nuclear power plant was severely damaged, but also a large number of previous orders were canceled, and Toshiba's direct economic losses exceeded $6 billion.
But how is it possible that Toshiba, which has experienced the Fukushima accident and other businesses that have been declining, is still profitable in 2012 and 2013?
In 2015, Toshiba was reported by internal employees for falsifying its finances and falsely reporting 224.8 billion yen ($1.5 billion) of pre-tax profits from 2008 to 2015.
At the apology meeting, Toshiba's three former CEOs, Takatoshi Nishida, Sasaki and Hisao Tanaka, bowed together, showing Japan's "craftsmanship spirit" well.
It was useless to just bow, and after the fraud was exposed, Toshiba's image plummeted, the stock market fell to the bottom, and its market value shrank to 40%.
In 2016, Toshiba, which no longer dared to fake, released a real financial report, and the company had a net loss of 950 billion yen, or about $6.6 billion.
*Globe.com
Starting in 2017, Toshiba entered the "sell, sell, sell" mode:
The medical equipment business was sold to Canon, the home appliance business was sold to Midea, the desktop business was sold to Fujitsu, the TV business was sold to Hisense, the image sensor was sold to Sony, and the notebook business was sold to Sharp...
As for Westinghouse, which was bought for $7 billion, Toshiba sold it to Brookfield, a Canadian asset management company, for $4.6 billion.
In November 2021, Toshiba was once rumored to be split into three companies, and rumors of delisting continued.
Now, Toshiba has officially delisted, and as a brand of the old era, this may be its inevitable end.
Resources:
Li Chopwood: The hundred-year-old giant was killed by himself
Financial Gossip Girl: The giant known as the light of Japan is about to be delisted
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Editor: Chen Zhanxiang