Toshiba tale takes a fresh twist with Western Digital’s offer to drop out
Tokyo — Western Digital has offered to drop out of a bid for Toshiba’s lucrative semiconductor unit after their talks stalled, seeking instead a stronger position in the two companies’ chip joint venture, two sources said on Tuesday. The move may help Toshiba finally seal a deal to sell its prized unit after months of delays, providing it with funds to cover billions of dollars in liabilities linked to its failed US nuclear business Westinghouse. A consortium including Western Digital, US private equity firm KKR & Co, the state-backed Innovation Network of Japan, and the Development Bank of Japan were previously offering about ¥1.9-trillion ($17.4bn) for Toshiba’s chip business, according to people familiar with the talks. Those talks had stalled in recent weeks, however, as the two sides struggled to come to an agreement over Western Digital’s stake in the business, which the Japanese company wanted to limit in an attempt to avoid prolonged antitrust reviews, sources have said. To ...
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