Toshiba denies negotiating to sell PC division

Toshiba reports that it is not in talks with any manufacturer about the sale of its PC division. The Japanese company is responding with the denial to rumors that negotiations are underway with Asus about a sale.

Reports that Toshiba is selling its PC division are unfounded and the group is not in talks with individual companies about this, Toshiba said in a statement. The company is responding to the report of the Japanese newspaper Nikkei, which claims that Toshiba is negotiating with Asus about a sale of the PC business. In addition, Lenovo would have shown interest in the division.

According to the newspaper, Toshiba has put the PC division up for sale as part of its strategy to divest loss-making divisions. Toshiba would only sell roughly 1.8 million PCs a year and therefore have a minimal market share. In Europe and many other markets, the company has stopped selling consumer laptops since late 2015.

Toshiba sold its memory division earlier this year and this week it was announced that it is selling its last part of its TV business to Chinese Hisense. The company is in a bad financial condition, partly because Toshiba’s American nuclear unit Westinghouse is in financial trouble. NEC and Fujitsu, relatively large Japanese PC manufacturers in the past, previously sold their personal computer divisions to Lenovo.