Toshiba is ready to sell its memory chip business to Bain Capital, the consortium that includes financial support from Apple, Dell, Hoya, and Hynix. The deal is costing US$18 billion and Toshiba expects to complete the process by March 31, 2018.
Toshiba has been shopping for someone to buy its memory chip business to raise cash and keep the rest of the company afloat. The company has been try to cope with billions of dollars in losses from its Westinghouse division, and decided to use its memory chip division to come up with new money.
Sources speaking with Bloomberg say Western Digital is still pursuing legal action over claims it should have some say in who buys the division. Western Digital already has a partnership with Toshiba’s memory chip business and wants to have a say in what happens with the division.
Toshiba hopes to resolve that dispute before closing the Bain deal. If not, however, Toshiba will hold on to three joint ventures it has with WD and revise Bain’s purchase price accordingly.
Apple played its cards well by throwing money into all of the bidding groups. The Bain deal doesn’t give Apple direct control over Toshiba’s memory production, but it does put the company in a strong position when it comes time to buy more chips for its products.