[THE INVESTOR] Korean chipmaker SK hynix remained silent on Sept 20 over reports that Japan-based Toshiba has decided to pick a Japan-US-Korean consortium as preferred bidder to buy its memory chip business unit.

According to news reports earlier in the day, Toshiba’s board of directors decided to sell its chip-making unit to the consortium for about 2.4 trillion yen (US$21 billion). The consortium includes US fund Bain Capital, Development Bank of Japan and SK hynix. Apple, Dell and other US tech firms have also reportedly joined the consortium. 

SK hynix said, however, Toshiba’s talks with multiple bidders have not yet concluded.

“Toshiba is expected to make an official announcement soon but it is unlikely to be more than repeating its current stance that it is continuing talks with Bain and SK hynix,” an SK hynix spokesperson said. “There are many hurdles before signing the final deal.”

Some industry sources anticipated that the talks will finally conclude this time.

Over the past few months, Toshiba had led negotiations with several groups, including those led by US storage system firm Western Digital and Chinese tech firm Hon Hai Precision Industry.

Earlier news reports said that the Japanese chip company had been delaying the final decision for sale as part of its efforts to raise the bidding price.

While seeking to take over the Japanese memory unit, WD claimed that Toshiba would infringe the US firm’s rights, as a partner for a joint venture in Japan, if the memory unit is sold to other companies.

The race for acquiring the Toshiba unit intensified recently as the Bain-SK Hynix alliance raised its offer to 2.4 trillion yen, higher than the initial offer of 1.94 trillion yen, after WD raised its own offer from the initial 1.9 trillion yen.

After struggling due to a financial crunch caused by its now-bankrupt US nuclear arm Westinghouse Electric, the Japanese chipmaker put its memory chip unit up for sale early this year.

The Japanese firm’s memory unit is the world’s second largest NAND flash memory chip producer.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)