Toshiba Corp. Seeks Alliance After Buying Westinghouse

Toshiba Corp. may have bit off more than they can chew. Westinghouse is the U.S. builder of nuclear power plants. Toshiba Corp. thought that Marubeni Corp. was going to help them pay the $5.4 billion (640 billion yen) price tag for acquiring Westinghouse.

But…Marubeni has backed out.

What ticked off Toshiba was the fact that Marubeni backed out the day after the acquistion was completed.

Toshiba Corp. had planned to hold a 50% stake, but saw that rise to 77% with Marubeni’s turncoat actions.

Toshiba, for its part, says it will seek other investors, in Japan and abroad.

Just goes to show you that Japanese business people sometimes cannot be trusted as well.

I once took a contract position to work with a Japanese in Silicon Valley. I chose him over other opportunities just because he was Japanese.

However, when it came time to be paid, the guy bailed out. Law suits and 2 years later, I got my money….but nowhere near the 170 billion yen tab that Marubeni left Toshiba with.

Marubeni, meanwhile, went shopping and bought into Daiei Inc.

Can Japanese businessmen and Japanese companies be trusted? I thought they could…. but now…

What do you think?

Asahi Shimbun