Toshiba To Proceed With Sale Of Memory Business To Consortium
by Billy Tallis on September 20, 2017 6:00 PM ESTThe latest and possibly final round of bidding for Toshiba's memory business concluded today with Toshiba's board selecting a consortium led by private equity firm Bain Capital as the preferred bidder, over competing bids from Western Digital and Foxconn.
Toshiba has spent most of 2017 trying to sell off their thriving flash memory business in order to offset devastating losses suffered by their Westinghouse nuclear power division. Those financial problems came to a head at the end of 2016 with Toshiba admitting that the losses could amount to several billion dollars, resulting in their stock price falling by more than 40% over a four day span and their bond ratings being downgraded by Moody's and S&P. As the magnitude of their problems became clearer, Toshiba first planned to spin off their memory business and sell a 20% stake, then revised that to selling a majority stake, and eventually settled on selling it outright. As the second largest manufacturer of NAND flash memory, Toshiba's memory business is valued at around $18 billion.
In June, Toshiba selected as preferred buyer a consortium including Bain Capital, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, Development Bank of Japan and competing memory manufacturer SK Hynix. Toshiba's attempts to sell off the memory business have been complicated by their long-running joint ventures with SanDisk, owned by Western Digital since May 2016. Western Digital and SanDisk have objected to Toshiba's attempts to unilaterally spin off and sell Toshiba's share of the partnerships, with the conflict escalating to arbitration proceedings and lawsuits in both Japan and California. Western Digital has sought all along to acquire the assets Toshiba is putting up for sale, but as the bidding process grew to encompass the entirety of Toshiba Memory and the price climbed, Western Digital had to partner with other investors to continue offering a competitive bid. The uncertainty caused by Western Digital's legal action has been a concern for other bidders, delaying Toshiba's efforts to finalize a deal.
In August, Toshiba re-opened negotiations with Western Digital and their partners, as well as with Foxconn. In the meantime, the Bain-led consortium's offer grew to include investment from Apple, Dell, Kingston and Seagate. Last week, Toshiba announced they had signed a memorandum of understanding with Bain Capital, intending to finalize a deal by the end of September, but not ending negotiations with competing bidders. As recently as September 19, leaks suggested that Toshiba was leaning back toward selling to Western Digital. At a Toshiba board meeting earlier today, Toshiba reaffirmed their commitment to complete a deal with the Bain Capital consortium. The exact sale price has not been made public, nor has the breakdown of the contributions of the individual consortium member companies.
Bloomberg is reporting that Toshiba is prepared to complete this deal even before resolving the legal disputes with Western Digital, by excluding the joint venture assets at issue from the sale and amending the purchase price to compensate. The joint ventures account for less than 5% of the Toshiba memory business, according to Bloomberg's anonymous source.
Toshiba has not yet issued an official statement on today's decision. Western Digital issued a statement expressing disappointment with Toshiba's decision and declaring their intention to continue their legal efforts.
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scoutdriver73 - Wednesday, September 20, 2017 - link
Please reword the title, it is misleading."The exact sale price has not been made public, nor has the breakdown of the contributions of the individual consortium member companies."
Billy Tallis - Wednesday, September 20, 2017 - link
I've removed the dollar value from the title. Every source for the past few months has cited the price as approximately ¥2T, which is currently equivalent to about $18B.Samus - Wednesday, September 20, 2017 - link
Why can’t westinghouse just declare bankruptcy?Manch - Thursday, September 21, 2017 - link
They are, and the power companies who's projects are going tits up are going after them. I was reading about it a few weeks ago. The cost overruns combined with the tax credit that lapse before the project will be complete due to delays has doubled the investment by the power companies. They're bouncing now. The one is SC is halted and the one in Georgia is not doing good either but is still under construction. The house has passed an extension of the tax credit but the Senate has not. I wonder where Trump & Perry are on this bc they both are advocates of nuclear.DanNeely - Thursday, September 21, 2017 - link
Westinghouse isn't an independent entity/ It's just a division of Toshiba. Toshiba could theoretically declare bankruptcy, but would then find itself being dismembered by a court selling off all its good bits to cover the losses vs Toshiba voluntarily just selling off one of them.vladx - Wednesday, September 20, 2017 - link
Sad that we lose such a big player, especially considering the present SSD landscape.HomeworldFound - Thursday, September 21, 2017 - link
I wanted Western Digital to keep Toshiba. I worry about future competition, memory prices and R&D.vladx - Thursday, September 21, 2017 - link
You worry about competition, but you wanted WD to get Toshiba's memory division? LolHomeworldFound - Thursday, September 21, 2017 - link
Their competitors are known price fixers and cartel supporters, I believe members of the consortium are looking for the cheapest source of memory not future innovation and competition.Rayb - Thursday, September 21, 2017 - link
It's in the best interest of everyone in the market that Toshiba's memory business doesn't get acquired by WD.The Bain Capital led consortium purchase has some benefits for Toshiba, they could actually buy back into their business once the Westinghouse mess has been dealt with. I don't think WD would be so generous with their offer.