from the it's-non-of-your-NAND-business dept.
Toshiba is considering splitting its NAND business into a separate company and selling a stake in it to Western Digital or another investor:
In the recent months, Toshiba ran into a new accounting scandal that may require it to write down as much as 4 billion dollars because of cost overruns at its U.S. nuclear power business. The exact number has not been finalized, but the company is already studying various possibilities to offset the massive loss, which would anger its investors after the company already faced an accounting scandal in 2015. Nikkei reports that Toshiba is mulling to spin off its semiconductor business into a separate entity and then sell a 20% in the new company to someone like Western Digital for about $2.7 billion, while retaining 80% stake as well as operational control of the unit. Toshiba confirmed that it is studying the possibility of its memory business spin-off, but noted that no decision has been made and that the in-house NAND production is a focal business.
Toshiba and Western Digital already operate the world's largest NAND flash production complex in Yokkaichi, Mie prefecture, Japan. Formally, the manufacturing facilities belong to joint ventures between the two companies and WD buys wafers from Toshiba. It is not completely clear how the spinoff would work in this case and which parts of Toshiba's business will be up for sale.
Also at Tom's Hardware.
[Continued...]
Tom's Hardware also reports on the delayed release of Samsung's 4 TB SSDs due to NAND shortages:
In the months leading up to CES, we spotted a press document that listed Samsung's award winners for the show. Among the various consumer electronics products stood the 850 Pro 4TB as the only SSD we didn't already know about. The MLC large-capacity prosumer model has long been rumored since the release of the 850 EVO 4TB with 3-bit per cell V-NAND flash technology. Well, CES came and went, but the 850 Pro 4TB never materialized. We reached out to Samsung for comment and received a reply. Speaking through Allison+Partners, Samsung's North American PR agency, we received this response:
"As a result of the worldwide NAND shortage, Samsung is focused on allocating NAND to products where we see the greatest demand. We will let you know when further updates on the 850 PRO 4TB are available."
[...] On the surface, the response is exactly what we expected from the world's largest SSD manufacturer, but we quickly realized its true value. This is the first confirmation of a retail SSD release that has been delayed due to the NAND shortage. Several recent products have come to market in short supply, like the 960 Series, but none have been pushed completely off the shelf, as far as we know.
Related Stories
Toshiba continues to look for a buyer for its memory business:
South Korea's SK Hynix Inc has entered the running for a stake in Toshiba Corp's memory chip business, seeing an opportunity to gain on rivals in the booming NAND market, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The world's No. 2 memory chip maker had submitted an initial bid, although the size of the stake it wanted to acquire had not been decided, the source told Reuters, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the deal.
[...] Toshiba aims to raise more than 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) from the less-than 20 percent stake in its memory business, sources have said. The sale is part of a broader sell-off to cover multi-billion dollar writedowns stemming from its U.S. nuclear power unit.
Previously: Toshiba Teasing QLC 3D NAND and TSV for More Layers
Toshiba Envisions a 100 TB QLC SSD in the "Near Future"
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs
Westinghouse Electric Company has filed for bankruptcy:
Westinghouse Electric Co, a unit of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp, filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, hit by billions of dollars of cost overruns at four nuclear reactors under construction in the U.S. Southeast.
The bankruptcy casts doubt on the future of the first new U.S. nuclear power plants in three decades, which were scheduled to begin producing power as soon as this week, but are now years behind schedule.
The four reactors are part of two projects known as V.C. Summer in South Carolina, which is majority owned by SCANA Corp, and Vogtle in Georgia, which is owned by a group of utilities led by Southern Co.
Costs for the projects have soared due to increased safety demands by U.S. regulators, and also due to significantly higher-than-anticipated costs for labor, equipment and components.
Pittsburgh-based Westinghouse said it hopes to use bankruptcy to isolate and reorganize around its "very profitable" nuclear fuel and power plant servicing businesses from its money-losing construction operation.
Also at Ars Technica and Business Insider.
Toshiba's Westinghouse problems have caused the company to sell off other assets:
Toshiba in Trouble
Toshiba Shares Plunge Ahead of Nuclear Investment Writedown
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs
Toshiba Nuked Half its Assets
A joint bid by the U.S. company Broadcom Limited and the Japanese government may keep Toshiba's chip business out of the hands of China or South Korea:
A Japanese government-backed fund and policy bank are considering a joint bid with Broadcom Ltd for Toshiba Corp's semiconductor business, a move that would vault the U.S. chipmaker into the lead to buy the prized unit, the Asahi newspaper said on Wednesday.
A bid by Innovation Network Corp of Japan and the Development Bank of Japan with Broadcom would appear to be aimed at preventing Toshiba's chip technology from going to rivals in China or South Korea, the Asahi said, citing an unidentified source.
INCJ Chairman Toshiyuki Shiga said on Tuesday the fund was looking at the chip auction although it had not participated in the first round of bidding. People familiar with the matter have told Reuters INCJ might invest in the business as a minority partner - a move that would help the government prevent a sale to bidders it deems risky to national security.
Previously: Toshiba and SanDisk Announce 48-Layer 256 Gb 3D NAND
Toshiba in Trouble
Toshiba Teasing QLC 3D NAND and TSV for More Layers
Toshiba Envisions a 100 TB QLC SSD in the "Near Future"
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs (WD is a bidder)
SK Hynix to Bid for Toshiba's Memory Business
Toshiba Nuked Half its Assets
Huge Nuclear Cost Overruns Push Toshiba's Westinghouse Into Bankruptcy
Toshiba Warns That its Survival is at Risk
Toshiba wants to sell off its memory business, but not to Western Digital (just yet):
Toshiba was hoping to complete a deal with the winning bidder at a shareholder meeting yesterday. In the weeks leading up to that meeting, Toshiba had to issue several reminders of how desperate their financial state is: disclosing new legal actions against them by investors seeking damages pertaining to Toshiba's accounting scandals, announcing that the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges are moving toward delisting Toshiba, and revising their outlook for fiscal year 2016 to reflect a negative shareholder equity of (¥581.6B). Meanwhile, Western Digital reiterated their objection to Toshiba selling the memory business to a third party and warned several third parties that they would view participation in the sale as tortious interference. Most recently, Western Digital also reportedly resubmitted its bid for Toshiba's memory business with an offer around ¥2 trillion, close to the amount offered by the consortium Toshiba had previously selected as the preferred bidder. Toshiba for their part has made no mention of Western Digital's offer.
In the aftermath of yesterday's shareholder meeting, Toshiba made several announcements. As expected, Toshiba was not able to finalize a sale of the Toshiba Memory Corporation subsidiary they have consolidated the memory-related assets under, but they are continuing to negotiate with the consortium. Toshiba announced plans for further investment in the joint venture's Fab 6 in Yokkaichi, Japan, and questioned whether SanDisk would jointly invest in the 3D NAND fab. Toshiba also announced that it has filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against Western Digital alleging unfair competition and seeking an injunction and damages. Toshiba claims that Western Digital is exaggerating their consent rights and also alleges that Western Digital has improperly obtained Toshiba trade secrets by transferring some employees from SanDisk to Western Digital whom have access to Toshiba confidential information through the joint ventures.
Previously:
Western Digital Announces 96-Layer 3D NAND, Including Both TLC and QLC
Toshiba Considers NAND Business Split; Samsung Delays Release of 4 TB SSDs
Broadcom and Japanese Government Considering Bid for Toshiba's Semiconductor Unit
Samsung Could Boost NAND Production Capacity, WD Intervenes in Toshiba Memory Sale
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 22 2017, @04:02PM
"Toshiba ran into a new accounting scandal"
They hired accountants from the Clinton Foundation?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday January 22 2017, @04:48PM
The specific business failure was cascading multi-generational failed acquisitions. Toshiba overpaid for Westinghouse nuclear division which overpaid for some subcontractor. Everything was leveraged and financed to hell and back so a "minor" mistake in price vs value for a grandchild company multiplied by the effects of multiple steps of margin results in the grandparent company being semi-bankrupt-ish.
I'm having trouble coming up with a political analogy at all. I guess if the dogcatcher accepts money in exchange for political support from the aldermen, and the alderman accept money from the mayor in exchange for political support, and the dogcatcher can't afford to get re-elected because there just isn't enough dough to buy the votes, then for no obvious apparent reason the end result is the mayor loses his job due to lack of political support, although when you look into the situation and diagram out who depends on who, its obvious what happened. Sorta kinda.
I guess a standard SN automobile analogy is say I only have a dollar to my name and I give it to my son who buys a car from the junkyard because its trunk has gold bars hidden in it, but it turns out later the car is worthless. So um whoops suddenly I'm bankrupt.
The general economic problem is just the usual finance and buy on margin to hell and back situation because growth is perpetual and eternal, until it isn't.
The nuke financial accident is separate from the accounting accident they had a year or two previous which was basically Fing up too much. Accounting is sort of a multi-user shared hallucination and everyone pushes the narrative until eventually someone gets grossed out by too much sex with sheep or something and the whole edifice tumbles down simultaneously and thats what happened to Toshiba there. Well we really like the financial results if we all agree that sheep harnesses depreciate on a 7 year scale. Whoops nobody else likes that depreciation schedule guess we is broke, peace out bye bye.
Financialization economic risk is very BS-ish, which is a problem. Now that milling machine has 50HP spindle power or it doesn't, its really cut and dry. But a flock of competing accountants deciding what the "goodwill" column contains on a balance sheet define is your company is successful or bankrupt and "goodwill" is basically a slush fund or BS in practice.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 22 2017, @05:19PM
You're killing me, VLM. I was just trol-lol-lolling with my post. ;^)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday January 22 2017, @05:27PM
It is interesting how many ways Toshiba has shown it can fail in public. Like, you find yourself stuck in a ditch first step for most would be stop digging, but no not Toshiba they are such a WTF.
Are they shockingly unusually messed up or are people paying unusually high amounts of attention to this one Japanese company and the "lost decade" now in its like 30th year (made that up, sure longer than a decade though) is crushing things a lot worse than expected?
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Monday January 23 2017, @05:53AM
Two people had moderated this post as flamebait, so that it was rated as 0, Flamebait. I tried to moderate it as troll, but got the error "moderation already at limit". Then I tried to moderate it as overrated, but got the error "already moderated" and the moderation was unchanged. None of my moderator point were used up. It looks to me as though, when someone posts with a karma bonus, the score cannot be brought down to -1.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 23 2017, @05:59AM
Weird. Looking into it...
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 23 2017, @06:04AM
All your karma are belong to me!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 23 2017, @01:26PM
It's a actually the moderation system functioning as intended, for once. Technically the comment was at the floor of -1 but it got the +1 bonus for him being a subscriber.
I don't dig that it lets folks waste a mod point trying to further downmod comments already at -1 in that situation but I can't fix it right this moment. Have to fix one blocking bug so we can roll out this site upgrade then start on getting bitcoin working again. And I swear upon my favorite testicle that if the bastards at BitPay do another breaking overhaul to their API without notifying merchants or leaving the old version functional, I shall rain vengeance upon them the likes of which nobody has seen since old testament times.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday January 23 2017, @06:00PM
Thanks for for responding to this butthurt complainer's off-topic remark and explaining that that's the way the coders and subscribers want the site to work.
> [...] it got the +1 bonus for him being a subscriber.
I wasn't aware that there was such a bonus. When I click on the comment number to display the moderation, "Karma-Bonus Modifier" is displayed and I see Runaway1956's subscriber star, but there's not an explicit indication that an extra score point was added because he's a subscriber. If it were explicitly shown, moderators might better know not to bother. I'm having trouble finding my comment about it, but something very similar happened a few days ago when I tried to down-mod a post by aristarchus, who doesn't display a subscriber's star. I understand that showing the star is up to the discretion of the subscriber. Should subscribers be able to use their bonus point without anyone knowing until an attempt is made to down-moderate? Sneaky!
I don't dig that it lets folks waste a mod point trying to further downmod comments already at -1 in that situation but I can't fix it right this moment.
I'm almost certain that my mod points weren't used this time. I think one may have been used on the other occasion, with aristarchus' post. Since comments that are replies to an article, and which have a 0 score, are shown by default, they are visible for readers who don't log in and don't bother changing the viewing defaults for the article. They're also visible to search engines. Hence they become part of the most public face of the site. There aren't many such posts, but they may discourage casual visitors from deciding to participate.
If the subscriber's bonus could have the same effect as the karma bonus, so that subscribers could post at +3 but could be "modded to oblivion" I think it might be better for the site.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday January 23 2017, @06:33PM
Yeah, I guess I'll look into figuring this annoying little mess out after I get bitcoin working again, which will be first thing after this upcoming release.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday January 23 2017, @03:03PM
(Score: -1, Stale as white dog shit)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday January 23 2017, @04:15PM
+1 original ;^)