Nuclear fusion
Japanese industrial conglomerate Toshiba appears to have won an auction to buy the Westinghouse nuclear technology assets of state-owned British Nuclear Fuels PLC for a bid of over $5.3 billion. Toshiba beat out a combined by bid by rival Hitachi and General Electric. Japan's Mitsubishi also was in the running.
Westinghouse is the builder of the majority of nuclear plants in the United States, and hold major patents in new, safer technology. With the recent increases in the prices of natural gas and continued concerns about the ecological impact of coal, signs are strong that new or revamped plants are likely in the US. In addition, China is very interested in increasing its power generation through new nuclear plants. Reportedly, China plans to build 30 nuclear plants by 2020.
Westinghouse has a long history in American corporate life, but its brand name has been diminished significantly. Stared in 1869 as the Westinghouse Air Brake Company making railroad equipment, it became a manufacturer of power generation equipment and electric motors in the 1880s.
At various times the company was involved in defense electronics, electrical appliances, broadcasting, elevators, furniture, credit, real estate, and finally bought US TV network CBS in 1995. In 1997, the company was renamed CBS Broadcasting (later sold to Viacom and spun off this year yet again). The Westinghouse name and the nuclear assets went to British Nuclear Fuels in 1999.
The Toshiba purchase makes it a close rival in the nuclear plant field to French-based Areva Group, which is the other logical competitor and the #1 company in the nuclear business. The point is that Toshiba needed at least to be a credible #2 in order to compete, and that was worth what uis considered to be a very high bid,
