Toshiba's board has approved an agreement to sell the company's memory chip business to a consortium led by Bain Capital and including SK Hynix, Apple and other companies. As earlier indicated, the sale price is JPY 2 trillion, an amount that may be reduced by the value of Toshiba's stakes in joint ventures with Western Digital, if it cannot reach a legal settlement with the latter.
Toshiba noted that the purchasing consortium Pangea will be majority Japanese owned. In addition to Bain's contribution of JPY 212 billion, the Japanese manufacturer Hoya is paying JPY 27 billion, and Toshiba will invest JPY 350 billion in the memory business. Other investors include Korean chipmaker SK Hynix (JPY 395 billion) and JPY 415.5 billion from a group of US investors including Apple, Kingston Technology, Seagate and Dell Technologies.
The US investors will not be allowed voting rights, and SK Hynix will be limited to 15 percent of voting rights for the first ten years. The Korean company also will have its access to proprietary information at the memory business restricted.
Pending regulatory approval, Toshiba hopes to close the sale by March 2018. If it is unable to reach an agreement with WD, the sale will go ahead without the joint venture assets.
