More bad news out of Japan. Toshiba expects to lose $4.5 billion (£780b) this fiscal year and cut 30% of its consumer electronics workforce. The company will focus its PC sales on the US and Japan, which could mean the end of consumer Toshiba PC sales in Europe.
Additionally, Toshiba will cut 1,000 jobs from its headquarters operations staff, which brings the global total to about 7,500 layoffs, according to a company statement.
This news comes as a result of accounting irregularities that led to the resignation of former Toshiba CEO Hisao Tanaka. Tanaka and his board overstated profits by more than $1.2 billion (£780m) over a seven-year period. Tanaka encouraged business heads to falsify earnings statements shortly before the end of financial quarters so that it appeared the company was in good financial health.
What the job cuts mean
Toshiba will restructure how it conducts business across its Lifestyle category, which includes its PC, Visual Products and Home Appliances businesses.
The company's PC business will limit consumer sales to Japan and the US, while focusing on global business-to-business sales.
So, if you're expecting to buy next year's Kira, Tecra A50 or Satellite Radius 15, you might be out of luck if you're one of our European readers.
It is immediately unclear if the PC business outside of the US and Japan will be shuttered entirely or if it will be dramatically downsized. However, it has been previously reported that Fujitsu, Toshiba and Vaio may combine their operations in a move that would create a single, dominant manufacturer that controls 30% of Japan's domestic PC market.
If you're a fan of Toshiba TVs, you're out of luck entirely. Toshiba has recently ended all production and sales outside of Japan.
Toshiba's Home Appliance business will continue to produce products. However, it will see a large number of job losses in order to enable Toshiba to operate the unit at a lower cost.
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