Toshiba accepts 2tril yen Western Digital-led group
TOKYO: Japan’s embattled Toshiba Corp is set to sell its memory chip unit to a consortium led by Western Digital Corp for two trillion yen (RM76.8 billion), said the Nikkan Kogyo business daily yesterday.
Toshiba plans to make a formal decision soon with the signing of an agreement to come after a board meeting on September 20, said the Nikkan Kogyo.
Sources said Toshiba’s board was due to meet today to consider offers from three groups.
One person said negotiations between Toshiba and Western Digital were ongoing.
A Toshiba spokesman said no decision has been made on the sale of Toshiba Memory, and that the company was not commenting on details of the bidding process.
Toshiba is desperate to sell the unit to cover billions of liabilities at its United States nuclear unit Westinghouse.
In addition to the Western Digital-backed consortium, which also includes KKR & Co LP and Japanese government investors, Toshiba has said it is also considering a bid led by Bain Capital and South Korea’s SK Hynix as well as one by Taiwan’s Foxconn.
Sources said Western Digital, which jointly invests in Toshiba’s key chip plant, has offered to step back from the consortium’s financing as a compromise, but it still wants a future stake in the chip business. Reuters