Toshiba focuses on negotiation of sale of chip unit in Bain group, but does not rule out other interested

TOKYO-Toshiba Corp said on Wednesday it agreed to focus on selling your valuable chips unit to a group led by Bain Capital and the South Korean chipmaker Hynix SK, though not discard an agreement with other stakeholders.
The announcement came after sources told Reuters on Tuesday that Toshiba was favouring now the Bain group after failing to overcome disagreements with the rival Western Digital.
This Wednesday marks the third time that the Japanese conglomerate fails to meet a deadline to sell your business for 18 billion-the second largest producer of Nand Flash memory chips.
Without an agreement soon, it will be difficult to Toshiba get until the end of the fiscal year in March regulatory approval of the sale and, consequently, the necessary resources to cover billions in liabilities of the nuclear unit of the United States.
Toshiba said in a statement that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bain to speed up the discussions and who hopes to reach agreement by the end of September. But he added that the memorandum was not legally binding and does not prevent trade with other parties.
A representative from Bain was not immediately available for comment, while the SK Hynix declined to comment.
Western Digital, which invests jointly on Nand memory chips unit of Toshiba, but that has been in conflict with the Japanese company for much of the sale-said to be disappointed, plus surprise with the development because of your legal position.
"We remain confident in our ability to protect the interests of our joint venture and consent rights," said the company in a statement.
Sources said that discussions with Western Digital weakened after Toshiba, fearing that your partner were striving to eventually take over the chip business, sought to limit the future participation of the American company.
The latest offer from Bain group was 2.4 trillion yen (22 billion dollars), including a 200 billion yen investment in infrastructure, said sources, who did not want to be identified because the talks are private.