SECTION A $[40$ MARKS$]$

Read the article below and answer ALL the questions that follow.

Toshiba$-$ A Japanese company that used to be a tech giant is now struggling to stay alive.

Back in the mid$-1980$s$,$ Toshiba was one of the world$$s most innovative companies. During that time they launched the

T$1100,$ its first mass$-$market laptop. John Rehfeld, a former employee of Toshiba who helped sell the laptop overseas

said: $$There were a few laptops out before then but they all had compromises. That$$s why Toshiba got off to a fast start.

We had a laptop that performed like a desktop.$$

The Internet killed Toshiba$$s growth, people were buying their competitors computers for lower prices online. In $2016$

Toshiba announced that they would stop making PCs for European consumers, but will continue to sell computers to

businesses in Europe and the US$.$

In $2017$ Toshiba announced that they are considering selling its prized memory chip business to pay down debt. Later

that year the world$$s second$-$largest producer of NAND memory chips Bain$-$Led Group stated that they bought the

chip business for $$18$ billion.

Josh Horwitz explains $$How it took Toshiba $70$ years to reach its peak and just a decade to fall into an abyss.$$

Go back eight decades, and Toshiba was at the forefront of technology discovery. Although its roots originate in the late

$1800$s$,$ when the son of a tortoise$-$shell craftsman began developing telegraphic equipment, the present$-$day company

was founded in $1939$ as part of a merger between two Japanese companies, Tokyo Electric Company and Shibaura

Engineering Works.

The companies were the innovators of their day. In $1921$ Tokyo Electric invented the world$$s first double$-$coiled light

bulb, an innovation that remains in most incandescent bulbs. In the mid$-20$th century, the merged entity went on to push

forward the technology in videotape recorders, television sets, air conditioners, and even mechanized mail$-$processing

equipment.

Toshiba rose to prominence globally in the $1980$s and $1990$s$.$ During that time, the Japanese government provided

cheap loans, subsidies, and limits on competition in order to foster domestic technology giants that could export

products abroad.

The company$$s peak achievement came in $1985$ when it unveiled the T$1100,$ its first mass$-$market laptop. While Toshiba

and other companies had released laptops in the past, the T$1100$ was the world$$s first $$IBM$-$compatible$$ one, meaning it

contained the same or similar components and software to the popular IBM desktop PCs of the day, which had been on

the scene since $1981.$

The company was also a frontrunner during the semiconductor boom in the eighties. Somewhat inadvertently, Toshiba

invented NAND flash memory$$a key gut component in almost all modern hardware products. In $1984,$ a rank$-$and$-$file

engineer named Fujio Masuoka appeared at the International Electronics Developers Meeting in California to unveil the

fruits of his personal side project$$a memory chip that could store and retain data without power, serving as a storage

alternative to the reigning hard drive.

Masuoka remained unrewarded personally for his discovery, but Toshiba reaped the benefits. The chip went on to

power digital cameras, mp$3$ players, smartphones, and USB flash drives $($which derive their name from the memory

type$).$ Toshiba remains one of the leaders in NAND flash production to this day.

The internet killed the computer

Starting in the early $2000$s$,$ thanks to the internet$$s growing popularity, more ordinary consumers wanted a computer

than ever before. This created an opportunity for lower$-$end contract manufacturers from Taiwan, like Acer and Asus, to

begin selling house$-$branded laptops and other electric components. Later, Lenovo and a bevy of no$-$name brands from

China offered rival products at even lower prices.

$2$

DN

Toshiba, Sony, and other Japanese companies were once synonymous with sought$-$after consumer electronics. But

nowadays, consumer electronics$$even laptops$$aren$$t any more exciting than a microwave or washing machine. That

means consumers usually want the cheapest brand, not the most prestigious one.

The competitive squeeze, coupled with the $2008$ recession, caused the company to take a hit on its bottom line.

According to its revised financials, revenues from its PC division shrank over $80\%$ between its $2007$ and $2015$ fiscal

years...

In $2015,$ an investigation spurred by a whistleblower revealed that the company had overstated operating profits by as

much as $$1\mathrm{.}2$ billion over the years of the PC business$$s stark decline.

In an effort to please shareholders, then$-$CEO Atsutoshi Nishida, who had climbed the company$$s ranks since his days

building the T$1100$ laptop, set unrealistically high profit targets for that division. This time, however, his pipe$-$dream

numbers couldn$$t be met. And rather than risk failing, subordinates cooked the books.

A $334-$page report by an investigation committee set up by Toshiba s