Toshiba is cutting its PC workforce by 900 people due to poor sales

Sony recently sold off its VAIO PC business and it isn’t the only one struggling. Toshiba on Thursday announced its own plans to restructure its PC segment and, along with it, a round of layoffs. Toshiba said it plans to refocus on business-to-business (B2B) sales, which it said is still profitable, and to mitigate risks it has been taking in the business-to-consumer (B2C) markets. Its plan is to expand its B2B offering to include more than 50 percent of all Toshiba sales during the 2016 fiscal year. “In the B2C market, Toshiba will transition from the current business model, which is volatile and over-dependent on sales scale and volume, withdraw from unprofitable markets, and optimize sales bases in low profit countries and regions,” the company said in a statement Thursday.

In another sign of the decline of the PC, Toshiba is cutting its PC workforce by about 900 people and sales bases by more than half. The manufacturer said Thursday it will step up restructuring of its struggling consumer PC operations to focus on sales to business clients. Toshiba will withdraw from certain consumer markets but it would not specify which ones. It said it will cut its sales bases around the world from 32 to 13 during its 2014 fiscal year, which ends March 31. It would not say which consumer models will survive the downsizing. Toshiba makes laptops such as the Portege, Kira and Satellite brands, including the first laptop with a 4K display, the P50T-BST2N01. It’s also known for its popular Dynabook brand of PCs in Japan. “The main reason is to secure consistent profit,” a Toshiba spokeswoman wrote in an email when asked about the reasons behind the move. “Toshiba does not plan to withdraw from the PC business as there are cases in which technologies developed for PC have been transferred to different business areas.” The PC business has enhanced the company’s brand, she added. Toshiba will thus emphasize its profitable enterprise PC business and expand its offerings including workstations and tablets.