For Canon, the purchase represents a major opportunity to enter an attractive CT and MR original equipment manufacturer market, as Toshiba holds the fourth-largest market share of such equipment worldwide.

"I think the bid is clearly positive for Toshiba if the number is right," Damian Thong, a Macquarie Group analyst who previously assumed the unit to be worth no more than 400 billion yen, told Reuters, adding that "it would be a good way to shore up its equity capital base which would be otherwise be a concern for lenders and investors."


Still, other industry insiders wonder if the projected price tag is a little too steep.

“The [¥700 billion] price tag for Toshiba’s medical unit would be a bit expensive,” Ryosuke Katsura, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, said in the Wall Street Journal report. “The business synergy between Toshiba’s medical unit and Canon’s is very limited, given the small presence of Canon in the medical industry,” Mr. Katsura said.

The MR market is estimated to reach $7 billion globally by 2020, with a CAGR of 6 percent, according to a report by analysts at Research and Markets. The United States, Europe and South East Asia hold about 80 percent of the market share but Asian countries have the fastest growing markets.

The medical devices market in Japan is the second largest in the world behind the U.S.

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