April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said on April 13 that he strongly backs the bid by SK hynix to acquire the memory division of Japanese tech giant Toshiba.

“The preliminary bidding price is not very important, when the actual bidding begins things will be different,” he said after a lecture at a local university, responding to concerns that the bid price was lower than rivals.

Related:
SK hynix among potent bidders for Toshiba stake: IHS



The Japanese media reported that along with SK Group’s chip-making subsidiary, Taiwan’s Foxconn, US-based Western Digital and Silver Lake Partners were shortlisted as potential buyers of Toshiba’s memory business. Foxconn reportedly submitted the highest bid of 3 trillion Japanese yen (US$27 billion).

Toshiba was the world’s No. 2 NAND flash memory maker in terms of global market share as end-2016. SK hynix took fifth place, meaning the acquisition of Toshiba’s NAND flash business would catapult it to second place.

The Japanese tech giant is scheduled to select a preferred bidder by June.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)