Source: dailytimes.com
ByPeterLangan

AND so now it’s Toshiba Corp. Another giant brought to its knees from the ranks of Japan’s corporate behemoths that once ruled the world. Toshiba’s shares have lost about half their value since the company said last month it may face a writedown at its US nuclear power business, a piece of bad news that came on top of a recent accounting scandal at the company.

The scale of the writedown has now ballooned to around US$6 billion, forcing Toshiba – which makes a smorgasbord of products from semiconductors and laptops to washing machines and power plants – to ask banks for aid and look at selling stakes in its chip business. Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Sharp Corp., once the global standard for liquid crystal displays, ran into financing problems and was sold off to Taiwan’s Foxconn last year for about US$3.6 billion, becoming the first of Japan’s major electronics makers to fall under foreign ownership.

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