Toshiba gets go-ahead for NAND chip unit sale at angry shareholder meeting

Toshiba Corp shareholders agreed to split off its prized NAND flash memory unit on Thursday, paving the way for a sale to raise at least $9 billion to cover U.S. nuclear unit charges that threaten the conglomerate's future, reports reuters today.

"How can something that was supposed to be a pillar turn into a hole," said the shareholder, asking Tsunakawa about the company's nuclear business.

"Toshiba has become a laughingstock around the world. You have no clue what's going on," shouted another.

Toshiba, which expects to book an annual net loss of 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) for this business year on a writedown at Westinghouse, has said it is selling most or even all of a unit that is the world's second-biggest producer of NAND chips.

There would be 10 potential bidders including Western Digital, Micron, Foxconn and SK Hynix. However also the government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, and Development Bank of Japan are expected to enter later bidding rounds as part of a consortium.

It’s unclear whether Toshiba will sell most, or even all, of its unit that is world’s second largest producer of NAND memory. The company is in a joint venture together with Western Digital (which acquired the initial partner, Sandisk) called Flash Vision and Toshiba also owns the OCZ brand.

Source: Reuters via myce.