Toshiba

Lore & Background

Toshiba traces its roots to Tanaka Seisakusho, established on 11 July 1875 by Tanaka Hisashige, which was the first Japanese company to manufacture telegraph equipment. After the founder's death in 1881, the company became partly owned by General Electric and expanded into torpedo and mine production for the Imperial Japanese Navy. Declining demand led to insolvency in 1893, and Mitsui Bank took over, renaming it Shibaura Seisakusho. In 1910, Shibaura formed a tie-up with General Electric, which acquired about a quarter of its shares. The other half of Toshiba came from Hakunetsusha, a lightbulb manufacturer founded in 1890 by Miyoshi Shōichi and another pioneer. After financial struggles, it was renamed Tokyo Denki in 1905 and entered a collaboration with General Electric, which acquired 51 percent ownership. The two companies merged in 1939 to form Tokyo Shibaura Denki, soon nicknamed Toshiba, though the official name change to Toshiba Corporation did not occur until 1978. The company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in May 1949. Toshiba expanded through organic growth and acquisitions, creating groups such as Toshiba Music Industries/Toshiba EMI (1960), Toshiba International Corporation, Toshiba Electrical Equipment (1974), Toshiba Chemical (1974), Toshiba Lighting and Technology (1989), Toshiba America Information Systems (1989), and Toshiba Carrier Corporation (1999). In 1977, it acquired the Brazilian company Semp, forming Semp Toshiba.

Reader's Guide

Toshiba's significance lies in its long history of technological firsts in Japan, including radar (1912), the TAC digital computer (1954), transistor television, color CRTs and microwave oven (1959), color video phone (1971), Japanese word processor (1978), MRI system (1982), personal computer Pasopia (1981), laptop personal computer (1986), NAND EEPROM (1991), DVD (1995), the Libretto sub-notebook personal computer (1996), and HD DVD (2005). As a semiconductor company and the inventor of flash memory, Toshiba was among the top 10 in the chip industry until its flash memory unit was spun off as Kioxia in the late 2010s. It released the first mass-market laptop in 1985 and later ranked as a major vendor of laptops, exiting the PC business in 2020 by divesting it into Dynabook Inc. During the 2010s, Toshiba faced a much-publicised accounting scandal and the bankruptcy of its subsidiary Westinghouse in 2017, forcing it to shed underperforming businesses and eliminating its century-long presence in consumer markets. After a rejection to split the company, Toshiba was purchased by a consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners and Tolba in 2023, turning private and delisting after 74 years from the Tokyo Stock Exchange, where it was formerly a constituent of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX 100 indices.

Did You Know?

• Toshiba's name is derived from its former name, Tokyo Shibaura Denki K.K.
• The company invented flash memory and was among the top 10 semiconductor firms until its flash memory unit was spun off as Kioxia.
• In 1987, a Toshiba subsidiary was accused of illegally selling CNC milling machines to the Soviet Union in violation of the CoCom agreement.