Sharp has confirmed plans to acquire an 80% stake in Toshiba’s currently unprofitable PC business for an estimated ¥4 billion ($36.5 million). Under the terms of the contract, which is expected to be signed some time this week, Toshiba will retain the remaining 20%.
Sharp exited the PC business eight years ago, so the Toshiba deal represents the firm’s return to the market, under the guidance of its parent company, Foxconn.
Toshiba’s ailing PC branch was responsible for the first laptop computer back in 1985. Its sales peaked seven years ago, dropping from 17.7 million units in 2011 down to 1.4 million in 2017 and recording a loss of ¥8.2 billion ($74.8 million) for the year ending in March 2018.
Analyst Comment
Foxconn will, of course, be able to exploit its manufacturing scale and supply chain advantages to build a potentially good business. Fujitsu’s business has gone to Lenovo, now Toshiba’s to Foxconn. As far as I am aware, that just leaves the Vaio Sony spin-off as a Japanese-owned notebook business.
I still have fond memories of a Sharp ‘Widenote’ that I reviewed for an extensive period back in 1996 (ouch, that was a long time ago!). It was the first notebook to use a wide format display and always made a lot of sense to me as a regular traveller in cramped airline seats. (BR)
