Toshiba (TYO: 6502) has announced the scaling down of its consumer PC business to give more focus on its general business-to-business operations. This decision is in response to the company’s need to secure and stabilize its overall business structure, and as a result around 900 employees from the PC business division will be laid off.
In accordance to the change and restructuring of its business operations, the Japanese electronics giant will be shifting more towards corporate-targeted services, such as provision of enterprise hardware like workstations and business-use mobile devices, as well as technology-based client solutions. Part of the plan also includes of the corporation’s extension of global market channels to suit the needs of the target consumer and clients of the restructured services.
The shift towards business-to-business operations is Toshiba’s plan to extend its business range to include not just PC and electronics hardware, but also other related services and technology. Aside from the aforementioned services, this will also include other services and solutions that it had already offered so far such as BIOS, security options, wireless tech implementations and other deeply integrated technologies.
As for Toshiba’s reduced PC consumer business front, it will still continue to offer the same consumer service depending on the target market. Countries with high PC consumer demand (in Japan for instance) will still be able to enjoy PC services as is, while those on other countries with low PC consumer demand will have the services reduced. Correspondingly, the company will be reorganizing the sales bases to accommodate for this change. From 32 major PC sales division branches across the globe, it will be reduced to just 13, which would of course include Japan.
Aside from the shift to accommodate market changes due to the prevalance of mobile devices, another reason for Toshiba’s decision to scale down its PC business division is due to its losses incurred last year, which roughly amounts to about 20 billion Japanese yen.
The 900 employee lay off is about 20% of Toshiba’s PC business workforce, this includes 400 local (in Japan) employees, and 500 overseas. Toshiba aims convert its enterprise structure to business-to-business operations by at least 50% by the year 2016.
