Tag Archives: Fujitsu

Toshiba’s CEO Atsutoshi Nishida Stepping Down In June, May Be Replaced By Norio Sasaki

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Amit Chowdhry

Even though it is rumored that Toshiba was considering taking over SanDisk, the Japanese electronics company will be seeing their CEO step down in June.  Toshiba is currently facing record losses and may need additional capital to keep running.

Toshiba’s current CEO Atsutoshi Nishida, 65, will become chairman.  The head of the infrastructure systems group at Toshiba Norio Sasaki, 59, will become the CEO as long as shareholders approve.  Tadashi Okamura, the current Chairman of the company will become a board adviser.

When Nishida became President in 2005, he had really opened up the company’s wallet.  For example, Toshiba bought a majority ownership in Westinghouse in 2006 for $3.7 billion.  Last month the company agreed to buy out Fujitsu’s hard drive business.  The company also invested billions in flash memory chip production under Nishida’s watch.

These financial transactions caused the company to become overstretched.  But investors expect Toshiba to raise additional funds by issuing new shares in the near future.

Earlier this month, Toshiba announced the world’s thinnest smartphone and introduced a new line of Portégé Tablet PCs.

[via WSJ]

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Semiconductor Company Spansion Files For Chapter 11

Posted on March 2, 2009 by Amit Chowdhry

Spansion Inc. (NASDAQ:SPSN) laid off about 35% of their workforce last week and filed for Chapter 11 this week.  The company has about $3.8 billion in assets and $2.4 billion in debt.  The market valuation of the company right now is about $3.24 million with a current stock price of $0.02 per share.  Spansion plans to restructure debt and focus on other profitable markets such as Internet protocol solutions and wireless products.

About 3,000 employees were laid off as part of the 35%.  The job cuts would result in savings of about $225 million per year.  Former CEO Bertrand Cambou stated on Friday that he is returning the $403,000 in severance he received because he was heartbroken about others bring laid off without severance.  In 2007, Spansion had a $263.5 million net loss on $2.5 billion in revenue.

Spansion was formerly owned by AMD and Fujitsu.  It was spun off in December 2005 and both of those companies remained as major stockholders in Spansion.

[via BizJournals]

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