Toshiba Corp chief executive officer Satoshi Tsunakawa is stepping down as the embattled Japanese technology giant seeks to restructure and restore its reputation.
Tsunakawa is to be replaced by Taro Shimada, an executive officer and corporate senior vice president, under a decision made at a Toshiba board meeting yesterday, the Tokyo-based company said.
Shimada was an executive at Siemens AG, in Japan and the US, before joining Toshiba in 2018, working in its digital operations.
He faces the challenge of leading a restructuring plan that has drawn criticism from shareholders.
Last month, Toshiba said it plans to split into two companies, one focused on infrastructure and the other on devices.
Shimada said he takes pride in being the first CEO with a background in digital technology and hopes that would be a plus for Toshiba’s energy business.
“I have been at Toshiba for only three years, but I love Toshiba,” he said.
When asked about how he hoped to win over critical shareholders, Shimada said he had learned while working in the US about the importance of communicating as equals, referring to the expression “put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”
The restructuring proposal is still subject to shareholder and regulatory approval. An extraordinary shareholders’ meeting is set for March 24, when the plan is to be put to a vote.
Toshiba officials told reporters that the management change was timed to happen before that, although it was unclear how that might help win over shareholders.
Approval for yesterday’s personnel changes, including a resignation of another board member, and the nomination of two others, is to be sought in a shareholders’ meeting in June, Toshiba said.
Last year, Nobuaki Kurumatani resigned as Toshiba president and Tsunakwa took the helm. Kurumatani had headed global fund CVC Capital Partners’ Japan operations and became CEO in 2018.
Tsunakawa said he had accomplished his mission of handing over the leadership to the next generation and hoped Toshiba’s shareholders, customers and employees would agree with the proposed restructuring plan.
He did not say how the company had dealt with dissent.
“I am confident I was able to hand over the leadership toward Toshiba’s evolution into the future,” he told reporters in an online news conference.
He defended the decision to appoint Toshiba people, not outsiders, to top positions, saying that the company needs to change from within.
This might be Toshiba’s “last chance” to fix its reputation and brand power as a technology company and win back trust, he said.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS