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Western Digital has apparently been spurned as Toshiba has agreed to sell its semiconductor business to Bain Capital instead for around $18 billion. The deal has not been finalized so more confusion could be over the horizon:
Japan's Toshiba Corp agreed on Wednesday to sell its prized semiconductor business to a group led by U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital LP, a key step in keeping the struggling Japanese conglomerate listed on the Tokyo exchange. In a last-minute twist to a long and highly contentious auction, Toshiba said in a late-night announcement through the exchange it agreed to sign a contract for the deal worth about 2 trillion yen (13.22 billion pounds).
The decision to sell the world's No. 2 producer of NAND memory chips, first reported by Reuters, was made at a board meeting earlier on Wednesday. Late on Tuesday, sources had said Toshiba was leaning towards selling the business to its U.S. joint venture partner Western Digital Corp. It's unclear whether the sale to the Bain Capital-led group will proceed smoothly, as Western Digital has previously initiated legal action against Toshiba, arguing that no deal can be done without its consent due to its position as Toshiba's joint venture chip partner.
Also at NYT, Engadget, Nasdaq, BBC, and Bloomberg (alt opinion).
Previously: Chaos as Toshiba Tries to Sell Memory Business
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 22 2017, @03:55AM (5 children)
My thoughts exactly. Whenever I see a company sold to some vague "holdings" or "capital" outfit, all I can think of is "well, there it goes. This company's been impaled on a spike and now the vultures are going to come suck its blood out as it dies a slow, painful death."
There ought to be a law against "holdings" companies like this. What do they contribute?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Friday September 22 2017, @04:22AM
Assuming the deal goes through, they helped it fill the money hole caused by that nuclear division writedown. Westinghouse [wikipedia.org] is killing Toshiba.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Friday September 22 2017, @05:26AM (3 children)
You need to follow the news more. Bain Capital is the company through which Mitt Romney made most of his money and is also the owner of Toys R Us, which went bankrupt just this week.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @06:14AM
somehow Bain hasn't quite sucked Staples dry, though.
I worked at a softwate (and services) company bought by Bain. As long as business is profitable, kinda sorta ok. But Bain will get their 8% return out of the companies it buys, one way or another. Of course it's the usual patterns...
o insurance plans get crappier, copays go up, etc.
o 401k match % goes down.
o "core hours" come along, for a previously more flexible workplace in a traffic-challenged city (as opposed to region)
o coffee secretly changed from Starbucks to Folger's Crystals (but curiously, noone notices...)
o toilet paper in the workerbee toilets changes to single ply. the bathroom on the executive's floor still has the good stuff though...
o regional mass transit benefit cancelled. but hey now theres a 'pre-tax transportation/commuter savings account" one can set up...
o chocolate ration increased from 20 grams to 25 grams (how quickly everyone forgot that last year's ration was 30 grams...
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday September 22 2017, @06:35AM (1 child)
Oh, I know about Romney and Bain, though I didn't know they had...ahem...acquired Toys'r'us. And bankrupted it. These people are starting to act like real-life Montgomery Burns, but not funny.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 22 2017, @09:50PM
Montromney Bains?