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In major restructure, Toshiba's copier business operations, functions and personnel in Japan will be transferred to the new TEC Corp. January 1,l999
In a late August announcement that took many office equipment industry observers by surprise, Toshiba Corporation, based in Tokyo, Japan and parent company of Toshiba America Information Systems (TAIS) in Irvine, Calif. and TEC Corporation, a Toshiba subsidiary, announced a major restructuring whereby Toshiba's plain paper copier business will become part of TEC as of January 1, 1999. At that time, all of Toshiba's copier business operations, functions and personnel in Japan will be transferred to the new organization. In a related move, TEC Corp. will transfer its lighting fixture manufacturing business to Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corp.
A press release originating from Japan explains that "the integration reflects the key trend in the office equipment market-the digital convergence of the image processing technologies used in copiers, facsimiles and printers." This restructuring follows a similar restructuring in 1994 when TEC integrated Toshiba's fax and printer business into its own operations, making it Toshiba Group's core supplier of computer peripherals.
Under the transfer, publicly held TEC Corp. will raise its capitalization, and Toshiba, which currently owns 46 percent of TEC, will increase its investment in the company to more than 50 percent. When the transfer is complete, TEC will operate under the newly named Toshiba TEC Corporation.
The new company is expected to have a flexible and efficient management structure, which Toshiba says will allow it to make business decisions much quicker while responding more rapidly to an increasingly competitive market. Products from the new organization will continue carrying the Toshiba brand name. In addition to copiers, TEC Corp. will develop, manufacture and sell fax machines, printers, scanners, point-of-sales equipment, and small home appliances, such as vacuum cleaners.
Mitsuo Kubo, formerly vice president and general manager of engineering for Toshiba, has been named president of the new company.
The restructuring first takes place in Japan before extending to Toshiba's overseas subsidiaries. In addition to the United States, Toshiba has overseas copier development and manufacturing subsidiaries in...