Encyclopedia
is a multinational high technology electrical and
electronics manufacturing firm, headquartered in
Tokyo,
Japan. It is the 7th largest integrated manufacturer of electric and electronic equipment in the world.
As a chip maker, Toshiba Semiconductors is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.
History
Toshiba was founded by the merging of two companies in 1939.
The first company, Tanaka Seizosho , was Japan's first manufacturer of telegraph equipment and was established by
Hisashige Tanaka in 1875. In 1904, the company name was changed to Shibaura Seisakusho . Through the first part of the
20th century, Shibaura Engineering Works became a major manufacturer of heavy electrical machinery as Japan, modernized during the Meiji Era, became a world industrial power.
The second company, originally named Hakunetsusha, was established in 1890 and was Japan's first producer of incandescent electrical lamps. The company diversified into the manufacture of other consumer products, and in 1899 it was renamed Tokyo Denki .
The merger in 1939 of Shibaura Seisakusho and Tokyo Denki created a new company called
Tokyo
Shibaura Denki. It was soon nicknamed Toshiba, but it wasn't until 1984 that the company was officially renamed Toshiba Corporation.
The group expanded strongly, both by internal growth and by acquisitions, buying heavy engineering and primary industry firms in the
1940s and
1950s and then spinning off subsidiaries in the
1970s and beyond, groups created include Toshiba EMI , Toshiba Electrical Equipment , Toshiba Chemical , Toshiba Lighting and Technology , Toshiba America Information Systems and Toshiba Carrier Corporation .
The company was responsible for a number of Japanese firsts, including radar , the TAC digital computer , transistor television and microwave oven ,
color video phone , Japanese word processor , MRI system , laptop personal computer , NAND EEPROM , DVD , the
Libretto sub-notebook personal computer , and HD-DVD .
In 1987, the company was accused of illegally selling
CNC milling machines used to produce very quiet
submarine propellers to the
Soviet Union in violation of the CoCom agreement. The incident put a strain on relations between the
United States and
Japan and resulted in the arrest and prosecution of two senior executives, as well as the imposition of sanctions on the company by both countries.
In 2001, Toshiba signed a contract with Orion Electric, one of the world's largest OEM consumer video electronic makers and suppliers, to manufacture and supply finished consumer TV and video products for Toshiba to meet the increasing demand for the North American market.
In December 2004, Toshiba quietly announced it would discontinue manufacturing traditional
cathode ray tube televisions. In 2006, Toshiba terminates production on plasma TVs. Toshiba quickly switched to Orion as the supplier and maker of Toshiba-branded CRT-based TVs and plasma TVs. However, to ensure its future competitiveness in the flat-panel digital television and display market, Toshiba has made a considerable investment in a new kind of display technology called
SED.
Before
World War II, Toshiba was a member of the Mitsui Group zaibatsu. Today Toshiba is a member of the Mitsui keiretsu , and still has preferential arrangements with Mitsui Bank and the other members of the keiretsu. Membership in a keiretsu traditionally meant loyalty, both corporate and private, to other members of the keiretsu or allied keiretsu. This loyalty could extend as far as the
beer that workers would consume, which in Toshiba's case was
Kirin.
In July 2005
BNFL confirmed it planned to sell Westinghouse, then estimated to be worth $1.8bn . However the bid attracted interest from several companies including Toshiba,
General Electric and
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and when the
Financial Times is an international business newspaper printed on distinctive salmon pink broadsheet [i] ...
reported on January 23, 2006 that Toshiba had won the bid, it valued the company's offer at $5bn . The bid has surprised many industry experts who question the wisdom of selling one of the world's largest producers of nuclear reactors shortly before the market for nuclear power is expected to grow substantially;
China, the
United States and the
United Kingdom are all expected to invest heavily in nuclear power.
As a chip maker, Toshiba Semiconductors is a major player : During the eighties, it was one the two largest semiconductor companies . During the nineties and up to now, Toshiba Semiconductors was almost always among the Top 5. In 2005, Toshiba Semiconductors is number 4, behind
Intel,
Samsung and
Texas Instruments, but before
STMicroelectronics.
For more information, refer to the
Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Market Share Ranking Year by Year.
Innovation and highlights
Toshiba has created a perpendicular recording 1.8
inch disc that can store 80GB.
Toshiba's brand familiarity in the United Kingdom was considerably boosted in 1980 by their now famous
Blueprint Man set of adverts. This consisted of a distinctive angular
cartoon man, similar in shape to a
crash test dummy, drawn in
blueprint and wandering around the company's blueprints, examining them and explaining why Toshiba products are superior. The adverts have been revived a number of times; in the first set, the virtues of Toshiba Hi-Fi equipment were extolled in a song parody of
Alexei Sayle's "Ello, John, Got A New Motor?". The song parody has evolved over the years to apply to different items: from 'like your hi-fi system' to 'flatter, squarer, tube'. The actor has been changed, too. The original recording artist for the Toshiba Blueprint Man was the eccentric musician and lyricist
Ian Dury, after whose death was replaced by the lead singer from Madness, Suggs.
See also
External links
