Potential rescuers of Japan's Takata Corp have extended talks, already in their 14th month, for a deal to take over the air bag maker at the heart of the auto industry's biggest safety recall, people briefed on the process said. Car-parts maker Key Safety Systems Inc (KSS) and Bain Capital LLC are the preferred bidder for Takata, whose faulty air bags have been blamed for at least 16 deaths worldwide, Reuters reported.

Toshiba Corp filed twice-delayed business results on Tuesday without an endorsement from its auditor and warned its very survival was in doubt, deepening a prolonged crisis at the Japanese conglomerate, Reuters reported. "There are material events and conditions that raise substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern," Toshiba said in announcing bigger than previously estimated losses for the nine months through December.

Japanese investors ramped up their selling of French government debt to a record pace in February as bondholders shuddered at polls showing rising support for eurosceptic candidate Marine Le Pen in the country’s upcoming presidential elections, the Financial Times reported. Money managers in Japan dumped ¥1.58tn (€13.4bn) of French bonds in the fourth consecutive month of net sales as the country’s long-running favourite for the presidency, François Fillon, was engulfed by an embezzlement scandal.

Toshiba’s chances of remaining a listed company are bleak as the crisis-hit industrial group scrambles to meet a third accounting deadline, analysts warn. The warnings come as executives among Toshiba’s creditors — an 80-strong group of big banks and regional lenders — have been told to prepare for the possibility that the company will fail to produce audited earnings numbers for the October-to-December quarter of 2016 when they are due on April 11, according to two people close to the company.

Shares in Toshiba Corp rose on Monday morning after a report that U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric Co could file for bankruptcy protection as early as Tuesday and is seeking support from South Korea's Korea Electric Power Corp, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Toshiba's shares were last up 0.5 percent at 224 yen after earlier rising as high as 232 yen, against the backdrop of a broader market downturn. Read more.

Toshiba’s biggest creditors are split over its future strategy as pressure mounts for a swift Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by Westinghouse, the troubled Japanese conglomerate’s US nuclear subsidiary, the Financial Times reported. People briefed on the situation said talks between Toshiba, its main lenders and other stakeholders are focused on whether it is possible or even desirable for Westinghouse to be placed under bankruptcy protection before the end of the Japanese group’s financial year on March 31.

Shares in Takata sank on Wednesday amid reports the troubled airbag maker might let its customers decide on how to restructure the company as it attempts to survive a crisis over its exploding airbags, the Financial Times reported. The Japanese company may have little choice other than to let carmakers decide on its fate, which could involve filing for bankruptcy through court as part of its restructuring process, Bloomberg said citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter.

Since its founding in 1873 as Japan’s first maker of telegraph equipment, Toshiba has survived a litany of challenges, from the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, to having its factories bombed into rubble during World War II, to the drubbing of the Zune music player it co-developed with Microsoft. Now the conglomerate may be undone by four nuclear power plants under construction in the American South, Bloomberg News reported.

Toshiba Corp.’s problems threatened to spiral out of control as the electronics giant projected a $6.3 billion write-down, postponed its earnings report because of allegations of impropriety and said its chairman was resigning—all in the space of a day, The Wall Street Journal reported. The delay in the earnings report sent Toshiba shares down 8% in Tokyo trading Tuesday, and its president said he was willing to sell most or all of Toshiba’s profitable flash-memory business to help the company survive past the March 31 end of its fiscal year.

Investors in Takata have begun to price in the growing risk of a court-led bankruptcy after Chinese-owned Key Safety Systems emerged as the leading bidder for the Japanese automotive supplier mired in a global recall crisis over exploding airbags, the Financial Times reported. In a statement, Takata said a steering committee of outside experts, commissioned by the company, had recommended KSS, a US airbag manufacturer owned by China’s Ningbo Joyson Electronic, as the preferred financial sponsor, although a final decision has yet to be made.