Toshiba said Wednesday it would sell its memory chip business to a group led by US investor Bain Capital, in a deal worth around $18 billion and seen as crucial to keeping the Japanese conglomerate afloat. The sale to the consortium - which includes US tech giants Apple and Dell as well as South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix - caps a months-long saga that saw heated courtroom battles, rival bids and the near-delisting of one of Japan's best-known firms.
"At the board meeting held today, our company has decided to conclude a contract to transfer stocks of Toshiba Memory to Pangea, a special purpose acquisition company formed by a consortium led by Bain Capital Private Equity," Toshiba said in a Japanese-language statement.
The deal is worth two trillion yen ($18 billion), Toshiba said, adding that it also planned a reinvestment worth 350.5 billion yen ($3.1 billion) in Pangea. Toshiba said it aimed to complete the sale by March. The announcement was a milestone in a protracted effort to sell the lucrative chip unit to revive the group's overall financial health. Last week Toshiba said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bain group as the leading candidate.