Toshiba is still reeling from an accounting scandal in 2015, and is announcing its largest expected losses for the past year in the company's long 140-year history.
One of Japan's premiere industrial conglomerates, Toshiba Corp. has positions in multiple industries including energy, infrastructure, healthcare and, of course, electronics.
Last year, the company was caught in a $1.9 billion accounting scandal after which the Japanese government fined the company a record-setting $60 million.
Since then, Toshiba has been trying to recover, but it's still bleeding money. In the fiscal year ending this coming March, Toshiba initially forecasted a loss of 550 billion yen or more than $4.6 million, but now warns their losses could be even larger at 710 billion yen or more than $6 million.
As a result, Toshiba president Masashi Muromachi is restructuring the company by cutting jobs, selling off the company's medical unit and reorganizing its PC and TV businesses in the hopes of bringing Toshiba's drooping stock back up from a 35-year low.
The past few years when Toshiba thought it could get away with padding profits have ultimately affected their bottom line by wiping any profits and revenue from the past year. Unfortunately, it's the company's employees that'll be paying for it.
Managers and executives are reportedly taking pay cuts while Toshiba offers buyouts or reassignments to healthcare workers and employees in its hard-drive business. President Muromachi himself has taken a 90 percent salary cut since August of last year.
The rest aren't so lucky. In its corporate division, 1,000 people are expected to be let go while another 2,800 workers from Toshiba's chip business will be left without jobs, too.
Ironically enough, in order to save itself from its own plunder, Toshiba will be borrowing even more money to the tune of 1 trillion yen – that's a trillion with a "T" – or about $8.5 billion to dig itself out of it's financial rut.
Beyond borrowing and job cutting, Toshiba is also selling off some of its properties to an elevator company. The company will also streamline some of its business by combining, for example, its PC division with Fujitsu and Vaio (formerly owned by Sony).
Photo : Cheon Fong Liew | Flickr
