Video: Toshiba To Cut Nearly 7,000 Jobs

Japan's Toshiba Corp is to cut nearly 7,000 consumer electronics jobs after a $1.3 billion accounting scandal. As Hayley Platt reports, the overhaul is designed to streamline the sprawling conglomerate into a company focused on chips and nuclear energy.

Video Transcript:

A $1.3 billion accounting scandal, falling profits and weak demand for its consumer electronics have all hurt Japan's Toshiba.

And it's now axing nearly 7,000 jobs in its consumer electronics division.

That's not all - there could be further cuts in other divisions - taking the total to 10,000 - 5 percent of Toshiba's workforce.

Masashi Muromachi is CEO.

"By implementing this plan, we would like to regain the trust of all stakeholders including shareholders and transform ourselves into a robust business."

The company which makes laptops, televisions and nuclear energy wants to streamline its operations.

It'll sell its tv manufacturing plant in Indonesia and concentrate on chips and nuclear power.

But net losses this fiscal year are expected to top $4.5 billion - after a third of a billion loss last year.

That sent shares tumbling nearly 10%.

Jeremy Cook is Chief Economist at World First.

"I put a bet on the Toshiba company still being alive and well but certainly owned by somebody else within maybe two years."

The 140 year-old conglomerate launched the world's first mass-market laptop in 1985.

But it's suffered a number of knocks since its heyday.

It's still counting the cost of the 2011 tsunami which struck its nuclear power plant at Fukushima.

And since its accounting problems emerged in early April it's lost 40 percent of its stock market value.

Many say restructuring is long overdue.