Western Digital Corp. is now seeking a 19.9 percent stake in Toshiba Corp.'s chip unit, giving up on its earlier plan to obtain a majority stake in an effort to reach a compromise over the acquisition, according to sources close to the matter.
Under the new proposal, the U.S. firm — Toshiba's joint production partner at a chip plant in Mie Prefecture — is aiming to buy Toshiba Memory Corp. in a joint bid with the government-backed Innovation Network Corp. of Japan turnaround fund and the government-owned Development Bank of Japan, the sources said Monday.
Cash-strapped Toshiba is trying to sell a majority stake in the chip unit for roughly ¥2 trillion to make up for huge losses from its U.S. nuclear business. The embattled conglomerate needs to raise cash to eliminate its negative net worth by next March to avoid being delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.