Toshiba Memory finds its buyer



06/07/2017 2:40 PM


Shares of Toshiba rushed up amid rumors that the Japanese vendor decided on a buyer of its semiconductor unit, reports The Financial Times.



Raimond Spekking
Toshiba’s shares started growing after Japanese edition Asahi reported that American chipmaker Broadcom is close to obtaining exclusive rights in the auction for Toshiba's business of producing NAND flash memory chips. It is also noted that in June Toshiba opened the final round of negotiations with Broadcom, baked by American investment fund Silver Lake.

Broadcom produces memory chips for modems, switches, access points, set-top boxes, laptops, tablets and smartphones. There is type different than that of chips manufactured by Toshiba. Taking into account this difference, the transaction between the two companies will not require a long check by foreign antitrust regulators, Toshiba believes.

Apart from Broadcom, Apple and Amazon also expressed a desire to buy out Toshiba's microchip units, Nikkei reports with reference to Foxconn’s CEO Terry Gou, whose company also applied for the acquisition of the Japanese corporation's business.

According to Gou, Foxconn teamed up with Apple and Amazon for a joint offer to buy. At the same time, he refused to disclose the amount of the possible transaction, saying that all the details will become known "when the time comes." Earlier it was reported that Foxconn is ready to pay up to 3 trillion yen ($ 27.36 billion).

The plans Apple’s management of Apple to purchase Toshiba’s semiconductor business were first announced in April this year, sources told Japanese television channel NHK. According to the information at their disposal, Apple is ready to spend several billion dollars to purchase a 30% share of Toshiba Memory.

Position of the Japanese authorities remains the main obstacle for the purchase of semiconductor production from Toshiba. Under Japanese law, all transactions related to the transfer of significant Japanese technologies to foreign companies are blocked by the government. To obtain Tokyo’s permission to purchase Toshiba Memory, the Taiwanese company Foxconn invited its partner, Japanese corporation Sharp, to the negotiations.

On Tuesday, June 6, Toshiba’s shares went up by 2.1%, and during the morning trading the growth reached 4.2%. As a result, securities of Toshiba showed the third best result in the Japanese index Nikkei 225, which includes the largest companies in the country.

source: ft.com


More