SK seeks to buy Toshiba’s memory department

Korea’s chipmaker, SK Hynix, said Friday it has joined the final bidding to take over the memory division of Japanese tech giant, Toshiba Corp.

Through a regulatory filing, the company said it has decided to join the final bidding with its consortium partner. Sources said earlier that SK Hynix formed an alliance with Bain Capital.

According to the sources, SK Hynix has conducted a study on the acquisition under a request from Toshiba. The Korean company is widely expected to suggest a price higher than the 2 trillion Japanese yen ($18 billion) proposed during the first bidding.

Shortly after the first bidding, SK Group’s head Chey Tae-won said its initial proposed price was not significant. Other major tech firms, such as Taiwan-based Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, and U.S.-based Broadcom Corp. are also expected to join the bidding. Western Digital, which has been maintaining closes ties with Toshiba, however, is presumed to have been excluded in the second bidding.

The U.S. company earlier filed a request for an arbitration to an international court, demanding exclusive negotiation rights. Industry watchers said Western Digital’s move lead to the delay in Toshiba’s selling of the memory chip business.

Toshiba has put its stake in its memory operations up for sale as it struggles with losses from its nuclear power business in the United States. Accordingly, the Japanese firm must conclude the deal by March 2018 to repay the debt. YONHAP