After the big accounting scandal that came to light earlier this year, now they have announced ~7000 layoffs at Toshiba, mostly in Japan, but some worldwide.
This article says that the PC division will continue. Another source suggests that the PC division may be sold off. Anyone want to speculate about potential buyers?
Related Stories
Westinghouse Electric Company has filed for bankruptcy:
Westinghouse Electric Co, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, hit by billions of dollars of cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S. Southeast.
The bankruptcy casts doubt on the future of the first new U.S. nuclear power plants in three decades, which were scheduled to begin producing power as soon as this week, but are now years behind schedule.
The four reactors are part of two projects known as V.C. Summer in South Carolina, which is majority owned by SCANA Corp, and Vogtle in Georgia, which is owned by a group of utilities led by Southern Co.
Costs for the projects have soared due to increased safety demands by U.S. regulators, and also due to significantly higher-than-anticipated costs for labor, equipment and components.
Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse said it hopes to use bankruptcy to isolate and reorganize around its "very profitable" nuclear fuel and power plant servicing businesses from its money-losing construction operation.
Also at Ars Technica and Business Insider.
Toshiba's Westinghouse problems have caused the company to sell off other assets:
Toshiba in Trouble
Toshiba Shares Plunge Ahead of Nuclear Investment Writedown
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs
Toshiba Nuked Half its Assets
A joint bid by the U.S. company Broadcom Limited and the Japanese government may keep Toshiba's chip business out of the hands of China or South Korea:
A Japanese government-backed fund and policy bank are considering a joint bid with Broadcom Ltd for Toshiba Corp's semiconductor business, a move that would vault the U.S. chipmaker into the lead to buy the prized unit, the Asahi newspaper said on Wednesday.
A bid by Innovation Network Corp of Japan and the Development Bank of Japan with Broadcom would appear to be aimed at preventing Toshiba's chip technology from going to rivals in China or South Korea, the Asahi said, citing an unidentified source.
INCJ Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga said on Tuesday the fund was looking at the chip auction although it had not participated in the first round of bidding. People familiar with the matter have told Reuters INCJ might invest in the business as a minority partner - a move that would help the government prevent a sale to bidders it deems risky to national security.
Previously: Toshiba and SanDisk Announce 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND
Toshiba in Trouble
Toshiba Teasing QLC 3D NAND and TSV for More Layers
Toshiba Envisions a 100 TB QLC SSD in the "Near Future"
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs (WD is a bidder)
SK Hynix to Bid for Toshiba's Memory Business
Toshiba Nuked Half its Assets
Huge Nuclear Cost Overruns Push Toshiba's Westinghouse Into Bankruptcy
Toshiba Warns That its Survival is at Risk
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 27 2015, @07:40PM
The "big accounting scandal" link to japantimes.co.jp is behind a javascript wall.
Here is a non-javascript link regarding the same event: http://fortune.com/2015/09/08/toshiba-accounting-scandal/ [fortune.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday December 27 2015, @07:56PM
No way is Fortune non-javascript. I'm looking at a blank page except header and footer at that link.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 27 2015, @07:59PM
Serious question - if you scroll way down the page, do you not find the plain text story? You won't get images or anything else, just the plain text story. That's what I got, anyway.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday December 27 2015, @08:41PM
Nope. Using uMatrix on Chrome. I have to whitelist wp.com (wordpress) before it will load the text.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 27 2015, @10:17PM
Strange. uBO and NS on FF, and I see the text just fine, just below the fold.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 27 2015, @07:57PM
Thank you, AC - you're right, the japantimes simply refused to load at all unless I enabled javascript. It should be noted, however, that the fortune article also uses javascript. I got the page on first loading, but it was mostly ugly. Plain text, and placeholders for stuff. Enabling javascript gives me the full webpage, complete with photos and the box with the quote in it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 27 2015, @09:33PM
By default, I block absolutely everything except visible text.
I also do not accept cookies.
I have never had the slightest problem with JapanTimes pages.
Indeed, for me, the "your browser needs Javascript" nonsense was actually useful.
It helped me find a good spot in the page's source code in order to index the page to a point very near the start of the actual content [japantimes.co.jp]--which is about halfway down the page for me.
(Their use of accessibility features is extremely poor.)
It would be interesting to know the mechanism--or, perhaps, combination of mechanisms--at work for the folks having difficulty.
...and the Fortune.com page has about the same number of scripts embedded as the "problematic" page and actually would need JavaScript enabled|whitelisted to see its content.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday December 27 2015, @10:51PM
It seems that I have, at some time or another, given partial permissions to Fortune, and then made them permanent. That is why I was able to scroll down to the text on Fortune's page.
I have never visited Japantimes before, and there were zero permissions enabled.
I run NoScript, as well as RequestPolicy. Yes, they are kinda redundant, but I've gotten used to clicking one, then the other icon when I want to view blocked content. I opened the Japantimes page in Iron browser, and I read the article, then closed it. It is a little more detailed than the Fortune article.
I don't see a need to give permissions to Japantimes, and I'm wondering why I gave permissions to Fortune.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Subsentient on Sunday December 27 2015, @08:40PM
They used to make glorious laptops that would last forever, my 1995 Toshiba Satellite Pro 405cs running a 2014 Linux distro is testament to that. But, for years, they've made garbage. They dropped in quality really badly, really fast. So, this news is not surprising. I also hear bad things about their hard disks.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 27 2015, @09:48PM
With a Capitalist operation, the people who are least responsible for the malfeasance|poor performance are invariably the first to be shown the door.
Logically, to increase the likelihood that there is not a repeat of the behavior, the cuts would start at the upper levels of the organizational chart where the damaging decisions were made.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday December 27 2015, @10:43PM
Used to fix laptops for a living and Toshibas very rarely came in. They were a bitch to take apart but designed well, and back in those days they were one of the first vendors to offer media players in a "dumb OS" mode in the BIOS without having to boot into the OS.
This is a true story you probably won't believe, but I fixed a Toshiba laptop for a woman and in return she let me borrow it when my own box went down. The laptop had a dead fan and overheated, and during a party I set a bag of ice on the laptop's keyboard. Everybody left, I passed out, and when I woke up the laptop was sitting in a puddle of water, still running like a champ.
I'm a Dell fanboy though. * ducks *
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 28 2015, @01:45AM
Never heard of or used this feature on any laptop.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Wierd0n3 on Monday December 28 2015, @06:37AM
mid to late 90's the laptop manufacturers added a option to play CD's and DVD's OS-free. the media controls were placed along the front edge, so that you could play a cd without opening the lid. Likewise, the speakers were placed along the hinge, or below the laptop, so the sound wouldn't worsen if playing with the lid closed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @06:37AM
The OS-in-firmware thing? [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [wikipedia.org]
...or a media player inside that, specifically?
(Don't know about the latter.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Daiv on Monday December 28 2015, @07:40PM
Lookup the Toshiba Satellite 1800/1805 series. I still own an 1805-S207 and it's fully working. Exposed media buttons with the lid shut would eject the CD drive and allow you to play music CD's with the OS completely shut down. In the early 00's this was pretty handy as I was in college so my laptop doubled as my stereo CD player.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 28 2015, @10:03PM
I feel like this feature has disappeared in recent laptops.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by SacredSalt on Monday December 28 2015, @01:42AM
You aren't kidding about the hard disks. I bought my Toshiba laptop in August. Its already going in for warranty work due to HDD problems.
I guess I better expedite that warranty claim!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @03:13AM
That takes me back. I remember when they had good products, what 20 to 25 years ago now. After working on IT for a decade or so after that, I watched their products RAPIDLY decline into utter garbage. Funny thing about manufacturing, if you make crap then nobody wants to buy it. Then again, the modern business model is to conceal how crappy your product is until after you have the money. Does that make them "ahead of their time"?
(Score: 3, Informative) by number6 on Sunday December 27 2015, @08:46PM
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
//http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/12/25/business/corporate-business/toshiba-fined-record-%C2%A57-3-billion-over-accounting-scandal/
Toshiba fined record ¥7.3 billion over accounting scandal (Dec 25, 2015)
The Financial Services Agency on Friday imposed a record ¥7.37 billion fine on
scandal-hit Toshiba Corp. for falsifying financial reports. Japan’s financial
watchdog set a Feb. 25 deadline for Toshiba to pay the fine. The company said
it would pay the amount, adding, "We apologize again to all stakeholders,
including our shareholders and investors, for having caused worry and trouble."
The FSA said it made the decision Thursday after determining that Toshiba
falsified its financial statements for fiscal 2011 and 2012, and documents
related to the Japanese conglomerate’s issuance of corporate bonds.
The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission had recommended that the
FSA impose a fine for the amount on Toshiba. The fine topped the previous
record of ¥1.6 billion imposed on IHI Corp. in July 2008 for issuing falsified
financial statements.
Toshiba has announced job cuts and restructuring steps for its unprofitable
businesses to emerge from the accounting scandal that has led to downward
revisions totaling ¥224.8 billion on a pretax basis for nearly seven years.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
//
TIP
I have a heavily-locked down browser; third-party resources blacklisted from loading; always 'No Referer'; all browser fingerprints obfuscated, fake or randomly change.
The Japan Times site (and the Fortune site) do not load in my browser under normal circumstances......
but if for some reason I want to visit such sites, I use _this webproxy service_ [ciproxy.de] . It is very reliable.
FYI,
here is the URL given to me by CIPROXY for visiting the JAPAN TIMES link (paste it into your browser and see if it works for you):
http://ciproxy.de/browse.php/N215S64T/ekWJfISh/U4R1nua_/2BLfJEI8/_2BUCXCk/TlhvUiME/1mRvcb9d/jUiGwgwQ/lstCCGW6/As31cSN3/39TlGI1e/F_2FLwVJ/fjP6Prfo/AMO_2FZW/eLVwIvdg/4XrdFtPe/fIP7PiG1/9t_2Bwpw/TIXIg8vQ/Cz8OYqfA/J0k7Hhjs/GOiQgbvG/Ox8nahgK/c_3D/b5/fnorefer
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cellocgw on Sunday December 27 2015, @09:47PM
Fuck Toshiba. They have the worst, most consumer-hostile, customer service I've ever dealt with. It's almost unbelievable what they'll do to avoid paying up on clear-cut warranty work. May their entire management rot in [a place with no pasta or pirates].
Physicist, cellist, former OTTer (1190) resume: https://app.box.com/witthoftresume
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hyperturtle on Monday December 28 2015, @12:03AM
what?
I thought their people had to be at least "A+" certified!
In other news, I remember a long time ago that a group of techs at a chain I won't name just downloaded a braindump or something and passed that and most of the other silly tests a vendor may require one to pass in order to, in the words of one tech, do the nude jpg/all music formats file scan and restore Windows from the factory reset partition after claiming there was a virus. They each got $1 an hour more for passing the A+; other certs varied. Some people were making twice the hourly rate that they were hired for due to the braindump incentives and... vendor incentives to perform certain warranty actions.
They got a spiff per repaired unit; format and start over was considered to be repaired, and they didn't even need to type in the word format--just launch the restore tool and say yes. Any actual effort beyond the piracy of the customer's files reduced their pay.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Monday December 28 2015, @03:23AM
Will the government of Japan keep the company afloat out of pride or "national defense" reasons? They're always comparing equipment with the Chinese.
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