Toshiba sells chip unit to Bain Capital for $18bn
Toshiba has finally confirmed it will be selling its troubled chip unit to Bain Capital in a deal worth $18 billion.
As revealed by Reuters, the deal, the equivalent to two trillion yen, brings an end to a prolonged bidding process which has lasted around eight months, and seen Toshiba flirt with a number of major organizations as it looked to offload its memory chip division.
US firm Bain Capital's acquisition is backed by a consortium of domestic and foreign investors, most notably Apple, Seagate and Dell, which will both provide financial support, as well as Toshiba itself, which will reinvest 350.5 billion yen into the new company.
The deal means that Toshiba will remain listed on the Tokyo stock exchange, a position that had been in real danger for the 78 year old company. Toshiba's chip operation was the second largest in the world, behind Samsung, making it a very attractive proposition for investors.
Fellow storage giant Western Digital had been thought to be in pole position to snap up Toshiba's operation, with shares in the company falling following the Bain Capital news.
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