Toshiba Corporation is a multinational company primarily based in Tokyo, Japan. Toshiba was founded in 1939 with the merging of two companies. These are Tanaka Seizosho (Tanaka Engineering Works), later renamed Shibaura Seisakusho (Shibaura Engineering Works) and Hakunetsusha.
Shibaura Seizosho, established in 1875 by Hisashige Tanaka, is Japan's first manufacturer of telegraph equipment. It later became one of the world's most powerful industrial companies in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Hakunetsusha was the second pioneer in the production of incandescent electric lamps. In 1890, its name was changed to Tokyo Denki [the Tokyo Electric].
When the two companies merged in 1939, the new company's name was easily based on the merging of the two names: Tokyo Shibaura Denki. Although this merger was already nicknamed Toshiba, it did not become the company's official name until 1978.
The company's business has many branches including consumer products, infrastructure, and semiconductors. Toshiba has also made a name for itself in the field of personal computers. It is, in fact, the fifth largest manufacturer of personal computers in the world. It is bested only by other giants in the computer industry namely, Hewlett-Packard, Dell Inc., Acer, and Lenovo.
Toshiba's expansion, both internally and through acquisitions, was very strong. During the 1940s-50s, the company bought engineering firms. Later during the 1970s, it started creating its own subsidiaries. The company then merged with Semp (Sociedade Eletromercantil Paulista), a Brazilian company in 1977. This merger is what is now known as Semp Toshiba.
The year 2001 saw Toshiba and Orion Electric signing a contract for the latter to manufacture televisions and other video products for Toshiba. This was due to the greatly increasing demand for Toshiba's video products in North America.
Toshiba was also Japan's pioneer in the manufacture of the radar in 1942, the TAC (digital computer) in 1954, the transistor television and microwave oven in 1959, the color video phone (a phone capable of transmitting both audio and video signals) in 1971, the laptop computer in 1986, the digital versatile disc (DVD) in 1995, and the Libretto - a subnotebook computer in 1996.
Toshiba made another first in the history of consumer electronics by investing in the development of a new television display technology - the SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display). This technology would employ the same concept found in cathode ray tube televisions (CRT's) but can be manufactured to be as slim as LCD and Plasma displays. It has also been noted that SED TVs consume less power than LCD TVs.
