FJTSY Fujitsu Ltd Adr (PK)

TOKYO—Toshiba Corp. on Monday hung a "for sale" sign on its health-care division, part of a broad move to get outside help for a conglomerate that expects to lose $4.5 billion this year.

Toshiba has been racked this year by one of Japan's biggest accounting scandals, which has morphed into a broader crisis affecting nearly all its major units. Its shares plunged 10% Monday and have lost more than half their value since March.

The company earlier said it was seeking investors for its Westinghouse nuclear subsidiary and its semiconductor business, and it is talking with Fujitsu Ltd. about a possible merger of personal-computer units.

The company said Monday it would cut 6,800 jobs, or about 30% of the total, in its consumer electronics and appliances unit, and a further 1,000 jobs in its headquarters operations. While a few may find other positions at Toshiba, most will leave the company, Toshiba President Masashi Muromachi said.

Analysts said Toshiba needs to find buyers quickly to stem the downward spiral and ensure its memory-chip business and other hopeful areas aren't starved of capital. Otherwise, they said, the company risks joining Sharp Corp., which has been bailed out twice by its lenders in three years, on the list of Japanese electronics firms struggling for survival.

"The biggest problem for Toshiba, in terms of making sure its memory chips remain competitive, is its ugly balance sheet," said Satoru Oyama, an analyst at IHS. "It should make sure it can raise enough funds for further investment."

Confirming reports over the weekend about large losses, Toshiba said it expected a net loss of ¥ 550 billion ($4.5 billion) in the year ending March 2016. That includes ¥ 230 billion in restructuring costs following the accounting scandal, in which the company has acknowledged overstating profits by more than ¥ 150 billion over seven years.

Deepening problems in the company's consumer electronics business are one reason for the losses, but tough market conditions for the company's mainstay nuclear and semiconductor operations are also playing a role. Toshiba said sales would fall by 7% this year and projected an operating loss at its semiconductor unit, which has been hit by a slowdown in China and weaker growth in global smartphone sales.

"We admit our steps toward restructuring were behind the curve," Mr. Muromachi said at a news conference. "The damage wouldn't be this large if we had been able to implement overhaul plans much sooner."

Japan's sprawling electronics conglomerates have spent much of the past two decades trying to rationalize their operations. The rise of China particularly hit their consumer-electronics businesses.

After the global economic crisis broke out in 2008, Hitachi Ltd., Panasonic Corp., Mitsubishi Electric Corp., NEC Corp. and Sony Corp. all cut back on consumer businesses to focus on more profitable business-to-business sales. A deal symbolic of the shift came Monday when Panasonic, which has long sold refrigerators to consumers, said it would buy Hussmann Corp., a U.S. maker of display cases and refrigeration systems for retailers, for $1.54 billion.

Toshiba took some steps to overhaul its consumer businesses, unloading its mobile-phone unit, but analysts say it lagged behind its rivals. The accounting irregularities made the problem worse by concealing problems.

"What Toshiba can learn from other electronics companies is the importance of quick decision-making," said Atsushi Osanai, an associate professor at Waseda Business School in Tokyo. "Toshiba should have done across-the-board restructuring years ago, but it's not too late."

Mr. Muromachi, the president, said Monday the company would "focus on businesses that can generate profits" and would "consider withdrawals from unprofitable ones if a turnaround is difficult."

Even the health-care unit, which Toshiba had described as a pillar of growth, is now on the block. The company said the unit's scale—it generates less than one-tenth of Toshiba total sales—was inadequate, so it is seeking to sell a majority stake. Toshiba's diagnostic scanners face stiff competition from the likes of General Electric Co., Koninklijke Philips NV and Siemens AG, as well as Samsung, which recently identified health-care as a growth area.

Mr. Muromachi said Toshiba had received expressions of interest for the health-care business. So far, deals have been hard to come by, aside from a sale of Toshiba's image sensor operations to Sony.

In the nuclear business, Toshiba's Westinghouse subsidiary has struggled to win new orders for reactors since the Fukushima Daiichi plant disaster in Japan in 2011.

Restructuring has been hampered by management turmoil. Toshiba's president and his two predecessors left company posts over the summer. Mr. Muromachi, who had been serving as chairman and stepped in as president after the shake-up, is expected to step down next June, according to people familiar with the situation.

"In order to compete against global giants such as General Electric and Siemens, Toshiba should overhaul its management quickly," said Hisashi Moriyama, an analyst at J.P. Morgan.

Write to Takashi Mochizuki at takashi.mochizuki@wsj.com and Eric Pfanner at eric.pfanner@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 21, 2015 07:35 ET (12:35 GMT)

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