Toshiba back on track
At an annual meeting of shareholders in Tokyo, Nishida said the company is aiming toslash 330 billion yen in fixed costs for fiscal 2009 ending next March, up 30billion yen from its earlier target announced in January. Nishida added that the company made better-than-expected restructuringprogress in April and May.
The Japanese electronics giant, which also makes nuclear power generationsystems and batteries, logged its biggest-ever group net loss of 343.56 billionyen in fiscal 2008, sinking into the red for the first time in seven years duemainly to losses in its chip-making division.
''We were forced to confront a temporary setback to sustainable growth amida once-in-a-century economic crisis,'' Nishida said. ''But I think I was ableto set out a path for recovery.''
Separately, the shareholders also approved the appointment of CorporateSenior Executive Vice President Norio Sasaki as the new chief executive whileNishida will become chairman after serving a four-year tenure as president. The appointments will be formalized at a company board meeting in theafternoon.
The 60-year-old Sasaki joined Toshiba in 1972 and spent most of his careerin the nuclear energy and industrial system divisions.
''In view of the lessons from the economic crisis from last year, we'll aimto build a company that's more resistant to economic and market volatilities,''he said.