In July of this year, Japanese electronics maker Toshiba was hit with an accounting scandal where the company was found guilty of “overstating profits” for the past six years. This has resulted in then president Hisao Tanaka and his two predecessors resigning from the company. The story doesn’t end there as now, the troubled Japanese company has said that it will report a record USD 4.5 billion annual loss and cut 6,800 jobs in its workforce as part of the restructuring effort.
The restructuring process will see Toshiba sell off its TV and washing machine manufacturing plant in Indonesia to a Hong Kong-based TV maker called Skyworth for a reported 3bn yen. The 6,800 job cuts will affect the company’s Lifestyle division, essentially its consumer electronics businesss. Alongside the job cuts, a number of jobs would also be lost by offering early retirement to those employed in Japan. Toshiba has said that these cuts would be made by March 2016.
Of course, this isn’t the full scale of Toshiba’s troubles as the company has yet to take into account the impact of the 2011 tsunami which struck the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which is operated by them and is currently undergoing decommissioning with Hitachi and other companies.
Source : BBC
