Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc., an Irvine unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., has done a bit of reshuffling among its executives.
The company makes and services printers, copiers and all-in-one office machines that print, scan, fax and copy. It sells them directly to businesses and through resellers.
Toshiba America Busi-ness Solutions split its top post into two positions.
The company decided to switch up the titles of its top brass after Chief Executive Richard Taylor stepped down. Taylor joined the company in 1995 and became chief executive in 2005.
Toshifumi Matsumoto, a longtime Toshiba executive, is set to fill his shoes.
“We took the opportunity to restructure our executive staff,” said Mark Mathews, who was promoted from general manager of the electronic imaging division to president and chief operating officer.
Matsumoto is set to be chairman and chief executive.
The reason for splitting job responsibilities “is that the American markets are big ones for Toshiba and we decided that this structure would make us more agile,” Mathews said. “Having two people divide the responsibilities would make us more efficient.”
Mathews, who has been with Toshiba for 15 years, is charged with managing all of the office equipment unit’s businesses in the U.S. and South America.
Matsumoto, a native of Japan, is set to handle overall company strategy, corporate services, compliance and regulatory reporting.
He’s held various posts at Toshiba’s Tokyo headquarters and served as the office equipment subsidiary’s vice president of strategic business planning from 2003 to 2006.
“He was selected because he knows the U.S. markets very well,” Mathews said.
Matsumoto is set to split his time between Japan and Irvine for the first few months and then eventually settle here.
Toshiba America Business Solutions, which doesn’t disclose revenue, has roughly 350 workers in Irvine.
The company is set to release a line of office devices that specialize in faxes, scanning and copying in color.
“In our industry there is a big conversion right now from black and white to color in the office,” Mathews said.
Toshiba also is zeroing in on bigger companies as potential customers.
“We are more focused on Fortune 500 accounts,its one of our strategies,” Mathews said.
Still, the company has seen sales slow and has concerns about companies’ shrinking technology budgets.
“Like most companies, we’ve seen our demand soften with the economy,” he said.
Newport Media Buy
Lake Forest-based startup Newport Media Inc., a maker of chips for digital audio and mobile TV, bought a South Korean company that makes software for cell phones.
Newport Media bought WRG Inc. for undisclosed terms. WRG makes chips that allow phones and other mobile devices to receive TV signals.
Newport Media, which last year opened a design center in Cairo, Egypt, has raised more than $30 million in venture funding.
Software Maker Bought
Irvine’s Famis Software Inc., a maker of online software for property managers, was bought by Santa Monica-based rival Accruent Inc.
Terms of the cash deal weren’t disclosed.
Famis’ some 40 local workers are set to stay in Irvine and operate as a unit of Accruent.
The company’s software helps real estate professionals manage construction projects, maintenance and operations, among other tasks.
Famis got its start in 1982 and was formerly called Prism Computer Corp.
Customers include government agencies, defense contractors and colleges and universities. Others include Ford Motor Co., Xerox Corp., Raytheon Co. and the city of Anaheim.
With Famis on board, Accruent is set to have about 400 customers, the company said.
Local Traffic
Aliso Viejo’s Local.com Corp., which hosts local search engines in the U.S. and Britain, said its Web site saw record traffic in January.
The company said it had nearly 12 million unique visitors during the month, up from about 11 million a year earlier.
Local.com, which used to be known as Interchange Corp., also said it’s started outsourcing sales people to call centers as part of an effort that began last year.
The company, which had a recent market value of about $60 million, is set to report fourth-quarter results on Wednesday. Its stock is down roughly 30% in the past six months.
In 2004, the company’s shares soared on hopes it might be the next Google Inc.
