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Toshiba was hit because they acquired Westinghouse, I remember reading that Westinghouse had some accounting irregularities before the acquisition that then Tos
by themaninthedark 8y ago
Toshiba was hit because they acquired Westinghouse, I remember reading that Westinghouse had some accounting irregularities before the acquisition that then Toshiba continued until recently.
I don't think it was the projects and the cost of them themselves but previous underlying problems in the companies.
- bunderbunder 8y agoThe big problem was that Westinghouse signed a contract that put them pretty much exclusively on the hook for cost overruns, without any good way to get out of it. That explains why it hit them so hard, but it doesn't necessarily explain the cost overruns in the first place. A lot of that can at least be partially explained by other, deeper problems. For example, they kept reworking the design even after breaking ground, which seems symptomatic of the loss of engineering expertise in the field over the past few decades. The whole saga has also led to two major manufacturers - Toshiba and Westinghouse - exiting the market, which I'm inclined to take as an omen that, at least in the North American energy market, a lot of these deeper problems can be expected to worsen instead of getting better.