Toshiba accepts $15 billion buyout offer from private equity group

[Shawn Knight]

What just happened? Toshiba has accepted a buyout offer from a consortium led by Japan Industrial Partners (JIP) that would take the tech giant private. The deal was approved by Toshiba's board on Thursday, valued at 2 trillion Yen (around $15.3 billion) or 4,620 Yen ($35.43) per share, and represents a premium of 9.7 percent over Thursday's closing price of 4,213 Yen.

Toshiba has a storied past that dates back to the late 1800s. The company successfully established itself as a global electronics giant over the years but has struggled mightily ever since a major accounting scandal rocked the organization in 2015.

The Japanese tech titan took several steps in an attempt to right the ship including cutting nearly 8,000 jobs and selling off multiple divisions. Toshiba sold its image sensor division to Sony, jettisoned its television business to Hisense, partied ways with its memory chip business and formally exited the PC market.

Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that around 20 Japanese companies including Chubu Electric Power and chipmaker Rohm Co. plan to participate in the buyout. According to Refinitiv, the deal would be the third largest merger / acquisition globally this year if successfully executed.

Share value in Toshiba has slid more than 11 percent over the past year but is up about 4 percent on the news as of this writing.

The JIP bid was the only complete proposal received during Toshiba's one-year competitive auction process. Toshiba fielded eight proposals in the first wave alongside two capital alliance offers, but only four offers made it to the second round, according to sources.

Analyst Travis Lundy with Quiddity Advisors told Reuters the deal ends months of uncertainty regarding whether or not a deal was inbound. The price may be disappointing, Lundy noted, but at least it is a way out for activist investors.

JIP is expected to produce a tender offer in late July, we are told.

Image credit: Building by Wen Xiao, Camcorder by Kasra Askari

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98070-toshiba-accepts-15-billion-buyout-offer-private-equity.html

 

[Kam7r]

( I know I know...) Toshiba is cheaper than twitter ... a real tech company producing real goods... VS an ocean of nothingness... and the latter cost nearly 3 times more ... I don't understand this world anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[yRaz]

( I know I know...) Toshiba is cheaper than twitter ... a real tech company producing real goods... VS an ocean of nothingness... and the latter cost nearly 3 times more ... I don't understand this world anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

can we just get our AI powered Waifus already so we don't have to participate in this clown world anymore?

 

[sorten]

( I know I know...) Toshiba is cheaper than twitter ... a real tech company producing real goods... VS an ocean of nothingness... and the latter cost nearly 3 times more ... I don't understand this world anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Haha, well, what Musk paid for it and what it's worth - particularly after the damage he's caused to the brand - are two different things.

 

[sorten]

Toshiba used to be my favorite electronics brand. I remember when their LED televisions were second only to Sony's and could be picked up for $300 or $400 less than the Sony equivalent. My 42" Toshiba LED flatscreen TV lasted 14 years.

 

[nnguy2]

Toshiba used to be my favorite electronics brand. I remember when their LED televisions were second only to Sony's and could be picked up for $300 or $400 less than the Sony equivalent. My 42" Toshiba LED flatscreen TV lasted 14 years.

They also had during the mid 2000s great laptops with their Satellite series.

 

[nismo91]

Still have my 10yo toshiba led tv with me. back then it was a cheap alternative to LG/Samsung/Sony and it was better than its main tv competitor: sharp

 

[Hodor]

Wow, Toshiba being so cheap compared to vaporware companies just shows how much fiat money and fiat stocks have been released by the investment cheaters. They are buying real stuff with game money. Biggest fraud of all times.

 

[GeforcerFX]

Still have my Toshiba laptop from 2013 and an older one I saved from the trash from 2010. Really liked there design and the build quality was usually a bit better at the price point then others. I have been using Toshiba HDD's in my desktop for the last decade, had my two 2tb drives from 2014 just get replaced by two new 8tb x300 drives, they have always been pretty reliable for me.

 

[Watzupken]

Hopefully this will improve the product quality, instead of focusing on cost cutting. I feel like Dell did very well when they were privately owned. But as they went public, the need to satisfy shareholders became the priority.

 

[lazer]

I still have my old toshiba laptop and it works great, abet a bit slow. But Toshiba was for me the best.

 

[Q Wales]

Nice purchase: The test you posted this week had Toshiba hard drives which "came out on top with an average lifespan of 34,799 hours"