Toshiba Corp has been quietly restructuring its US operation and this week it all becomes official. Toshiba America Inc is no more. In its place will be the rechristened Toshiba Information Systems Corp to stress its computer side. In the upheaval, Don Anderson, vice-president, OEM Division Advanced Systems, the executive who has been ultimately responsible for the company’s Unix efforts, has lost all product and strategic product planning responsibility in an internal coup d’etat that will see newcomer Bill Johnson, formerly Hewlett-Packard Co’s Personal Computer Group marketing manager and now head of Toshiba’s Computer Systems Division, pick it up. Insiders say Johnson, who also has responsibility for the operation’s $500m-a-year MS-DOS business, is unlikely to pay much attention to Unix, at least in the immediate future. Not only isn’t it the big money winner MS-DOS is, but Johnson has also got staffing problems, having lost marketing director Dave Crain, and, just last week, sales vice-president Phil Vertin. Despite being shifted aside, Anderson gets to keep his title of vice-president and has been given the job of strategic planner for Unix corporate issues. That way he stays on as Toshiba’s liaison with Unix International and the Open Software Foundation. Toshiba’s OEM Division, sans Unix, will now pick up some other products like optical character recognition systems, Smart Cards and a touch-screen personal computer. Insiders blame Anderson’s lack of management skills for his eclipse.
