According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, Toshiba Corporation was officially delisted on December 20.
Founded in 1875, Toshiba has a history of 148 years, and in 1949, the 74th year of the company's founding, Toshiba was listed on the Tokyo ** Stock Exchange. Coincidentally, exactly 74 years after its listing, Toshiba will officially delist in 2023.
In the course of nearly 150 years of development, Toshiba has built a huge industrial empire spanning home appliances, electricals, semiconductors, energy, and infrastructure, and has always been regarded as a symbol of Made in Japan, and has a reputation as the "Light of Japan".
Looking back on the whole process of Toshiba's journey from glory to loneliness, the mistaken nuclear power business was the first domino to be toppled.
Mistaken nuclear power
At the beginning of the 21st century, with the rapid development of science and technology, many old technology companies in Japan began to fall behind, and the business direction was in urgent need of adjustment, so Toshiba chose to bet on the nuclear power energy business.
Nuclear power is one of Toshiba's traditional businesses, and Toshiba participated in the design and construction of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which was put into operation in the 70s of the 20th century. In just a few years, Toshiba has developed into the largest nuclear energy company in Japan.
At that time, the global pioneer of nuclear power was the American Westinghouse Electric Company, which not only provided nuclear power technology to American aircraft carriers, but also set the world's nuclear standards. In 2006, Westinghouse announced that it would auction off a 77% stake, and if it could win the bid, it would be equivalent to winning the world's top nuclear technology.
In order to win Westinghouse, Toshiba frantically threw money and connections. Mitsubishi and Hitachi, old rivals who are also eyeing each other, continued to bid maliciously during the bidding process, forcibly raising $2.5 billion all the way to $5 billion.
In the end, after eight months, Toshiba completed the acquisition at a three-fold premium of $5.4 billion, and continued to increase the price to $7 billion to acquire an 87% stake.
This aggressive acquisition has really shaken Toshiba's foundations.
However, Toshiba didn't think so at the time, and then-president Takatoshi Nishida couldn't hide his excitement: "Although it will take more than ten years to recoup the cost of the acquisition, the prospect of nuclear power can bring huge returns to the company every year!" ”
After the acquisition, Toshiba mastered both boiling water reactor technology and pressurized water reactor technology, becoming a hot nuclear power company at that time, and for a time global nuclear power orders poured in like snowflakes.
However, the good times did not last long, and in the 2008 global economic crisis, Toshiba lost 343.5 billion yen due to a serious decline in business volume, and the unfavorable cash flow began to appear. 2011, 9The magnitude 0 tsunami caused a leak at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and among the six reactors at the nuclear power plant, the No. 3 and No. 5 reactors were damaged by Toshiba, of which the No. 3 unit was the most severely damaged. Toshiba's nuclear power business was devastated.
After this accident, Toshiba became the target of public criticism, many orders that had been received were also canceled, and countries around the world urgently stopped nuclear power projects, and Toshiba dreamed of breaking nuclear power.
The inability to recover funds from unfulfilled orders and the sharp decline in the number of potential customers have devastated Toshiba's vitality.
Mistake after mistake
Toshiba, who could not bear the shattering dream of nuclear power, made a desperate and unwise move
In 2015, Westinghouse continued to increase its position in Westinghouse, and acquired the nuclear power business of CBI (Chicago Bridge Steel Company), which is also heavily in debt, with the intention of further expanding the nuclear power territory.
In 2016, Toshiba's nuclear power business in the United States suffered losses of $6.3 billion, resulting in insolvencies of $5 billion and goodwill impairments of $6.1 billion. In 2017, Westinghouse, whose business conditions deteriorated, filed for bankruptcy, causing Toshiba to lose more than $6 billion again.
In the past decade, Toshiba's business conditions have declined. In terms of revenue, Toshiba's operating income increased from $53 billion in 1996 to $63.1 billion in 2015, and then began to decline, and in 2022, Toshiba's operating income was only $29.7 billion.
During this period, Toshiba continued to rely on "cutting meat" to continue its life, and in 2015, it sold its image sensor business to Sony; In 2016, the home appliance business was sold to Midea; In 2017, the TV business was sold to Hisense; In 2018, it sold its computer business to Sharp and its semiconductor business to corporate alliances such as Bain Capital in the United States. In 2022, the HVAC business was sold to Carrier.
Toshiba, which was not doing well, embarked on the road of no return for financial fraud in order to maintain the prosperity on the books.
On September 7, 2015, Toshiba announced to the public that it had falsely exaggerated its earnings over the past seven years by 224.8 billion yen ($1.9 billion) more than the actual gains, more than four times the amount expected at the beginning of the investigation into the scandal.
After the fraud** incident, Toshiba's stock price plummeted, its market value shrank by 40%, and half of its 16 directors, including the president, resigned. Toshiba's image plummeted, its financial situation deteriorated further, and in order to get out of trouble, Toshiba was forced to look for an acquirer in exchange for funds and resources, which was the direct cause of Toshiba's delisting.
In November 2021, Toshiba plans to split the company into three major parts according to its main business: infrastructure, devices and semiconductor memory, and list them separately. In February 2022, Toshiba again proposed to spin off its semiconductor and electronic components businesses, but the two splits failed to be approved at the shareholders' meeting.
On September 21 this year, Toshiba Corporation announced that the $15 billion tender offer led by the private equity** "Japan Industrial Partners (JIP)" has been successful, with more than half of the shareholders participating in the acquisition, reaching the threshold for privatizing the company. JIP currently holds 78 of the company65% of the shares, and after the transaction is completed, Toshiba will be delisted from the Tokyo ** Stock Exchange.
JIP's proposal aims to gradually increase Toshiba's corporate value in the future, delisting Toshiba from the stock exchange after a public takeover, and relisting Toshiba after the corporate value recovers.