Toshiba Corp’s shareholders on Thursday approved a proposal to split off the Japanese company’s prized NAND flash memory unit, paving the way for a sale of a majority stake or even all of the business.
TOKYO Toshiba Corp’s shareholders on Thursday approved a proposal to split off the Japanese company’s prized NAND flash memory unit, paving the way for a sale of a majority stake or even all of the business.
In the wake of mounting losses at its U.S. nuclear arm Westinghouse, which filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors on Wednesday, Toshiba has put up the business for auction.
It hopes to raise at least $9 billion and the company has said it believes the unit will be valued at around $18 billion.
A source with knowledge of the planned sale said that about 10 potential bidders are interested. Those suitors include Western Digital Corp which operates a chip plant with Toshiba in Japan, Micron Technology Inc, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc and financial investors.
At the shareholder meeting, which lasted for more than three hours, CEO Satoshi Tsunakawa and other executives faced angry questions after managers last year described the chip and nuclear businesses as core units at the conglomerate.
“How can something that was supposed to be a pillar turn into a hole,” one of the shareholders, who were identified by numbers, asked Tsunakawa about the company’s nuclear business.
“Toshiba has become a laughingstock around the world. You have no clue what’s going on,” shouted another.
Toshiba expects to book one of the biggest losses in Japanese corporate history with a net loss of 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) this year.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki- Writing by Tim Kelly- Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
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