Airbag-maker Takata brand disappears as CEO quits

Tokyo: Japan’s Takata said Thursday its chief had formally resigned after the completion of a takeover by a US firm, bringing the curtain down on the crisis-hit brand tainted by a deadly airbag scandal. The takeover resulted in the extinction of the 85-year-old Takata brand, with CEO’s Shigehisa Takada grandfather starting the company in 1933 as a textile maker. Takata’s name is now synonymous with the deadly airbag scandal which affected almost every major global automaker, including Toyota and General Motors, and triggered the auto industry’s biggest-ever safety recall. Last June, the firm filed for bankruptcy protection with liabilities reportedly exceeding one trillion yen ($9 billion).