As Toshiba, the embattled technology giant, battles for survival, it has turned to a group led by the Japanese government to buy its prized microchip business, although its plans still face a legal challenge by an American business partner.
After weeks of jockeying among suitors, Toshiba said that it hoped to reach a formal sale agreement over its semiconductor business by next Wednesday, in the process raising much-needed cash. The company did not disclose terms of the potential deal, but analysts have estimated the value of the memory chip unit at about $20 billion.
Such a deal would significantly bolster the fortunes of a titan of the Japanese economy at one of the lowest moments in its century-long history. Steep losses in its American nuclear power division, Westinghouse Electric, have cast “substantial uncertainty” over the company’s ability to function as a going concern, it says.
