Toshiba considers selling stake in chip business

Reuters reports that the Japanese company – which is still recovering from its previous USD 1.3 billion accounting scandal – caused a stir among its investors last mouth as it announced cost overruns at a US nuclear business it acquired back in 2015, something that could mean a charge against profit topping USD 4 billion. And with the company being on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's watchlist – making it impossible to raise funds from financial markets – the company does not have all that many options to offset the impact of this writedown. As Reuters puts it, a spin-off of its chip business and a stake sale might be the only ways out. Following a report in the Nikkei Business Daily on the matter, Toshiba issued a statement saying that: “Toshiba positions its Memory business as a focus business, and is studying the possibility of splitting it into a separate company. However, at this point, nothing has been decided.” Sources have told Reuters that the Japanese company could minority stake in its semiconductor business to Western Digital Corp. The report continues stating that there are several candidates for investment – without specifying further.