Apple has a bigger stake in the memory chip market because Toshiba has officially wrapped up its sale to Bain Capital. Apple is part of the consortium with the winning bid for Toshiba’s memory chip business.
Toshiba announced on Friday the US$18 billion deal was complete. The deal gives Toshiba a much needed cash infusion because the company had lost billions of dollars through its Westinghouse division.
The consortium includes Apple, Dell, Hoya, Hynix, Seagate, and Kingston. The companies don’t have direct control over the memory manufacturing process, but no doubt are all in a much better position to get good deals on the NAND flash RAM they need for their products.
[Toshiba Selling its Memory Chip Business to Bain]
[Toshiba Signs $18B Deal to Sell Memory Business to Bain Consortium]
The memory chip production that formerly belonged to Toshiba is now under the control of K.K. Pangea, a company created for the sole purpose of managing the business. K.K. Pangea is controlled by the consortium companies.
Toshiba holds 40.2% of the stock in the new memory chip business—not enough for controlling votes. The company hopes at some point to make the chip business an affiliate business, but isn’t saying when that could happen.