Toshiba has sold its final stake in the personal computer maker Dynabook. It means the firm no longer has a connection with making PCs or laptops.
Sharp acquired 80% of Dynabook two years ago for $36m (£27m), and has now acquired the remaining shares, Toshiba said in a statement.
Toshiba introduced it’s first laptop, the T1100, 35 years ago in 1985. It weighed 4kg (8.8 pounds) and worked with 3.5 inch (8.8cm) floppy disks.
It was introduced at first only in Europe with yearly sales target of 10,000 units, as stated by the Toshiba Science Museum website.
9 years ago, Toshiba sold over 17m PCs but by 2017 this fell to 1.9m, reports Reuters.
In 2016, it had ceased making consumer laptops for the European market, focusing only on hardware for businesses.
Recent years have been difficult for the conglomerate: in 2015, the firm posted a full-year loss of $318m.
That same year its president and vice-president resigned after an independent panel found the company had overstated its profits for the previous six years.
Toshiba’s first laptop
Last year, it wound up its nuclear business NuGen in the UK after failing to find a buyer for it.
Customer demand for laptops increased in the last few months due to the COVID-19 and ongoing worldwide lockdowns, but overall, the market for personal computers has been tough for quite a while, said analyst Marina Koytcheva from the firm CCS Insight.
“Only those who have managed to sustain scale and price (like Lenovo), or have a premium brand (like Apple) have succeeded in the unforgiving PC market, where volumes have been falling for years,” she said.
