US tech titans Apple Inc and Dell Inc have joined a bid to buy Toshiba Corp’s memorychip business, a deal seen as key to the survival of the cash-stripped Japanese industrial conglomerate, the US investor leading the consortium has said.
“Last week, Bain Capital made a revised offer” for Toshiba, which “brings in a broad list of strategic partners including Apple, Dell” and others who will invest in the business, Bain Capital said in a statement yesterday.
It was the first time Apple’s name has been officially confirmed as part of the bid, although it has reportedly also been involved in rival bids for the lucrative Toshiba segment.
Photo: AFP
The iPhone maker is in talks to provide about US$3 billion in capital for the bid. If the agreement is completed, it might exceed Apple’s largest deal, the US$3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics LLC.
The announcement came after Toshiba last week said that it had picked the Bain Capital-led consortium as the leading candidate to buy its prized chip business in a deal reportedly worth about US$18 billion.
The development was the latest twist in a long-running saga as Toshiba agonizes between three groups of suitors for its chip business.
The Bain Capital-led group also includes the state-backed Development Bank of Japan and the public-private Innovation Network Corp of Japan as well as South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc.
However, Toshiba has said that it was a “non-exclusive” agreement with Bain Capital that “does not exclude the possibility of negotiations with other consortia.”
Other suitors in the frame are a group led by Western Digital Corp, Toshiba’s US-based chip factory partner, and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), better known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康).
Toshiba is aiming to finalize the deal at a board meeting on Wednesday, despite opposition from partner Western Digital, according to people familiar with the matter.
Toshiba’s effort faces resistance because the Bain Capital-led group includes several Western Digital competitors, including Seagate Technology PLC, Kingston Technology Co and SK Hynix, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is not public.
Toshiba has sued Western Digital for trying to block the sales process.
“We believe this proposal represents a solution that meets the needs of all stakeholders,” Bain Capital said in the latest statement.
The proposal “represents the best possible outcome for Toshiba by ensuring” the memorychip business’ independence, Bain Capital said.
Kaori Hiraki, a spokeswoman for Toshiba, said she could not comment on the details of the deal.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
RSS