Toshiba sells chip unit to Bain-Apple group for $18 billion

Hitoshi Yamada | NurPhoto | Getty Images

The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen at the company’s facility in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, Japan February 28, 2017.

Toshiba agreed Thursday to sell its chip division for 2 trillion yen ($17.7 billion) to a Bain Capital-led consortium that involves large U.S. technology firms including Apple and Dell.

Earlier this year, Toshiba shareholders gave the go-ahead for the sale of the memory business; Toshiba is the world’s second largest producer of NAND flash memory — behind Samsung. And last week, the board agreed to sell the unit to the Bain consortium.

The group consists of Japan’s Hoya Corporation, South Korea’s SK Hynix, and U.S. investors Apple, Kingston Technology Corporation, Seagate Technology and Dell.

After the Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC) shares are transferred to the consortium’s special purpose acquisition company Pangea, Bain and TMC managemnet will lead the “business operations to secure continuous growth,” Toshiba said.

The U.S. investors will not acquire any common stock or voting rights over TMC. In addition, SK Hynix will be “firewalled” from accessing TMC’s proprietary information and will not be allowed to own more than 15 percent of the voting rights in Pangea or TMC for 10 years. SK Hynix is a competitor of TMC.