“A consortium led by Bain Capital has made a revised last-ditch offer for Toshiba Corp’s chip unit worth about $18 billion, bringing in Apple Inc to help bolster its bid, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said,” Kentaro Hamada and Taro Fuse report for Reuters. “The new offer comes as separate sources say the embattled Japanese conglomerate and Western Digital Corp are struggling to strike a deal ahead of their self-imposed deadline of Thursday.”
“Toshiba has been scrambling to sell its flash memory unit – the world’s No. 2 producer of NAND chips – to cover billions in losses at its bankrupt U.S. nuclear business Westinghouse,” Hamada and Fuse report. “The [Bain Capital consortium’s] revised offer is worth some 2 trillion yen ($18.2 billion). Bain and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc will be responsible for 1.1 trillion yen, while Apple will provide up to 400 billion yen and Japanese banks will give around 600 billion yen in support, one of the sources said. The proposal also calls for Toshiba to be part of the deal, investing 200 billion yen, the source said.”
“The bid trumps the 1.9 trillion yen offered by the Western Digital-led consortium, which also includes U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co LP. Banking sources have previously said, however, that Western Digital was working to get its proposal up to 2 trillion yen,” Hamada and Fuse report. “Bain’s revised bid was first reported by Japanese broadcaster NHK which said it would be structured so that Bain and Toshiba would each hold 46 percent of the unit.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s a bidding war!
SEE ALSO:
Apple and Amazon to back Foxconn on Toshiba chip bid, Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou says – June 5, 2017
Apple may bid for big stake in Toshiba – April 17, 2017
U.S. suitors get major advantage as Japan to vet bidders in Toshiba chip sale over national security risks – March 10, 2017
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]