Rumor: Some Toshiba board members don’t want to sell memory division

Some Toshiba board members no longer want to sell the nand memory division. That reports business newspaper The Wall Street Journal. It is still not clear who will take over the Toshiba branch if the sale goes through.

The board does not agree on which offer is the best, reports the business newspaper. Some board members do not want to sell the branch, because the division generates a lot of turnover. Those board members would like to go for the highest bid in a sale. That is reportedly from Foxconn parent company Hon Hai. However, the Japanese government is afraid that secrets about the technology will fall into Chinese hands if it is taken over by the Taiwanese company.

Another bidder is Western Digital, which acquired SanDisk last year. Toshiba and SanDisk had a joint venture in nand memory. The third bidder is a consortium that includes Japanese banks and Apple.

Toshiba splits its nand production into a separate company Toshiba Memory and sells part of it because it is in financial trouble after a series of financial setbacks. In March, Westinghouse, Toshiba’s US nuclear arm, had to file for bankruptcy. After Samsung, Toshiba is currently the world’s largest nand memory manufacturer.