With the US$18 billion sale of Toshiba’s memory chip unit to a Japanese government-approved consortium now under threat, some interested buyers are pressing the board to seriously consider alternatives.
As questions emerge around the role of South Korean rival SK Hynix in the preferred bidder group, some Toshiba executives and the company’s main creditor banks say they want top management to look at other options.
“Toshiba hastily picked the consortium ahead of its [June 28] annual shareholders meeting, but more and more flaws are emerging as time passes,” said a senior executive at one of Toshiba’s banks.
Scrapping that deal would leave one obvious option: rival suitor Western Digital, which bid for the chip business with private equity firm KKR.
But Western Digital, is in a legal dispute with Toshiba, and sources describe a deep distrust.
