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SK Hynix consortium set to take over Toshiba’s semiconductor arm

SK Hynix consortium set to take over Toshiba’s semiconductor arm

Posted June. 22, 2017 07:16,   

Updated June. 22, 2017 07:23

한국어

A South Korea-U.S.-Japan consortium has been named the preferred bidder for the sale of the memory arm of Japanese tech giant Toshiba Corp. The consortium includes South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which is leading the domestic semiconductor industry with Samsung Electronics Co.

At a board meeting on Wednesday, Toshiba selected the consortium, which also includes Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and Bain Capital, a U.S. equity fund, as the preferred bidder. "Toshiba has determined that the consortium has presented the best proposal, not only in terms of valuation but also in respect to certainty of closing, retention of employees and maintenance of sensitive technology within Japan," the Japanese company said through a release.

Toshiba holds the second largest share in the global NAND flash memory chip market. NAND flash memory is considered the “next big thing” in the global memory chip market, as it is used in core technologies of the fourth industrial revolution including the Internet of things, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence.

SK Hynix plans to complete the deal after negotiating the terms of the special purpose company to be set up by the consortium before Toshiba’s shareholders meeting scheduled for June 28. The deal is expected to be completed by March 2018 after monopoly reviews in the countries. Toshiba will likely be delisted from the Tokyo stock market after the deal is not completed by the deadline.



Dong-Il Seo dong@donga.com · Won-Jae Jang peacechaos@donga.com