Apple, Dell join Foxconn on Toshiba bid

According to a report by news-agency Reuters, Kingston Technology would also be part of the bidding group, with Amazon.com considering options. Furthermore, Terry Gou, Foxconn's founder and chief executive, is apparently also in discussions with Alphabet Inc's Google, Microsoft and Cisco Systems. "I can tell you Apple is in for sure," Gou said in an interview, adding that its participation had been approved by the Chief Executive Tim Cook and Apple's board of directors. Toshiba wants to sell its chip business, with an estimated value of USD 18 billion or more, to cover costs at its now-bankrupt U.S. nuclear business Westinghouse Electric Corp. Not an easy and straight-forward transaction, as the Japanese government has vowed to block any deal that would help to transfer key chip technology out of the country. Furthermore, on May 14, 2017, Western Digital announced that several of its SanDisk subsidiaries filed a Request for Arbitration with the ICC International Court of Arbitration related to three NAND flash-memory joint ventures operated with Toshiba.