Last week, the buyer of the Toshiba business for the production of NAND memory chips was never selected, but informed sources told Reuters that his name could be announced after Toshiba board members vote on the relevant issue today. The company would like to reach agreement on the purchase until June 28, when the shareholders meeting of Toshiba will take place.
As explained by the sources, the investment consortium, which includes Japanese banks and funds (INCJ, DBJ and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc), American investment company Bain Capital, as well as South Korean producer of memory SK Hynix, became the leaders of the race. Despite the presence of the latter, the profile Japanese ministry considers this group of investors to be the preferred buyer. Toshiba's leadership is more impressed by the Broadcom and Silver Lake offer, which exceeds the minimum rate of $ 18 billion by about 10%.
The trouble so far is that Western Digital Corporation, which has a joint venture with Toshiba for manufacturing solid-state memory, is ready to counteract competitors in court. To join the alliance, which includes SK Hynix, the American company is prevented by the fear of leakage of important technological secrets to the competitor. Koreans are strong in the production of DRAM, but in the segment of NAND fall behind the Japanese manufacturer. From this point of view, SK Hynix's interest in Toshiba Memory assets is quite understandable.
Foxconn represents another force in this struggle, which is trying to unite around itself the American companies Apple and Dell, as well as the controlled Japanese corporation Sharp. If the board of Toshiba votes for someone from the candidates for the purchase of assets today, surely the official statement will follow without any delays.