Toshiba PC Business Up For Sale $100M Price Sticker

Weeks after Hisense cut a deal to take on the Toshiba TV brand, Sharp is currently in talks with Toshiba to take over their global PC business.

Taiwanese parent Company Foxconn is one of the biggest manufacturers and assemblers of PC’s in Australia they assemble PC’s for HP and Dell locally. Foxconn acquired Sharp in 2016 for $3Bilion.

Toshiba who are desperate to offload assets is set to sell the PC operation for around $100M.

According to the Nikkei news source, Toshiba, is expecting PC losses to deepen in fiscal 2017, has been considering jettisoning the business even while working to turn it around. Toshiba entered into talks last year on a sale to Taiwan’s Asustek Computer, but a deal failed to materialize.

In Australia Toshiba bailed out of the consumer PC business 18 months ago to concentrate on the B2B market where they are struggling to hold onto their school’s business.

Sharp, exited the PC business in 2010. But the Osaka-based electronics company appears to think that acquiring Toshiba’s brand could aid in quickly rebuilding a presence.

Foxconn, formally Hon Hai Precision Industry, would be key to such an effort. It acquired Sharp in 2016. Information technology devices are Sharp’s strongest area of synergy with Foxconn, Sharp President Tai Jeng-wu said in April.

Foxconn builds PCs for the likes of HP and Dell and has amassed the know-how and procurement networks needed to manufacture devices efficiently at high volumes. Sharp, meanwhile, is strong in small and midsize liquid crystal display panels for such gadgets as computers and smartphones. Making PCs in-house would guarantee it a customer for the panels.

Toshiba’s computer line-up includes popular Dynabook laptops.

Toshiba’s PC segment posted a $600M operating loss for fiscal 2016 on sales of 191.8 billion yen. It faces stiff competition from rivals in China, Taiwan and elsewhere, as well as a market shrinking amid the spread of smartphones. The company’s PC sales fell to about 1.8 million in fiscal 2016 from a peak of more than 17 million in fiscal 2011. Operations have been scaled back, including by pulling out of consumer PCs in emerging markets.

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David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.