The Japanese Tech Giant Toshiba finally quits the laptop business ending a 35-year run by transferring its remaining minority stake in its PC business to Sharp. Toshiba will officially no longer be making PCs. To be fair, in recent years it had taken a step back from making laptops, but this goes beyond that. It’s a complete exit.
Toshiba issued a short and preside statement announcing that it had transferred its remaining minority stake in its personal computer business to Sharp. Toshiba had sold 80.1% for $36m (£27m) of its business unit, which its new owners renamed Dynabook, to Sharp in 2018, retaining 19.9% of shares. Sharp currently sells laptops under the Dynabook name.
In its statement, Toshiba said that Sharp had exercised its right to buy the remaining shares of Dynabook held by Toshiba in late June, and it had completed procedures for their transfer.
“As a result of this transfer, Dynabook has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sharp,” Toshiba said.
During the 1990s and early 2000s Toshiba was among the top PC manufacturers , but as more players crowded into the market and with fewer unique features to offer, Toshiba’s laptops waned in popularity. By the time it sold its stake to Sharp, Toshiba’s share of the PC market had dwindled from its 2011 peak of 17.7 million PCs sold to about 1.4 million in 2017, according to Reuters.
