South Korean company SK Hynix will become the world's second largest producer of flash memory if it participates in the acquisition of the semiconductor business Toshiba. On Wednesday, June 28, wrote the edition of The Korea Herald.
According to IHS Markit analysts, currently SK Hynix takes the third place in the supply of NAND flash chips, having an active 11.4 percent market share. At Toshiba this indicator makes 17,2%. Thus, the joint share of companies is equal to 28.6%. Leading Samsung Electronics - 36.7%.
After buying SanDisk, Western Digital's share of the flash memory market reached 15.5%. Western Digital also claims to purchase semiconductor assets of Toshiba.
A few days ago, Toshiba announced the selection of the preferred buyer for the Toshiba Memory Flash Memory Unit. He became a consortium consisting of the investment fund Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, private investment company Bain Capital, Development Bank of Japan, SK Hynix and a bank that is part of the financial group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. These companies, according to the latest data, offer 2.1 trillion yen (19 billion dollars) for the purchase of Toshiba Memory.
In SK Hynix while abstain from comments. Previously, in a company that, as the Reuters agency notes, has rather weak positions with regard to NAND flash technology, it was stated that the decision to participate in the acquisition of semiconductor assets of Toshiba was made because SK Hynix sees in it the business opportunities.
Western Digital CEO Stephen Milligan sent a letter to the Toshiba board of directors saying that the US company will not support the deal with the consortium, since SK Hynix will receive assets in the joint venture (JV) of Toshiba and Western Digital, which "increases the likelihood of technology leakage And causing damage to JV ".
Toshiba President Satoshi Tsunakawa previously stated that if the deal with the consortium takes place, SK Hynix will not own a share in the Toshiba Memory unit and participate in the management.
According to media reports, SK Hynix is ??ready to provide the consortium with a loan of 3 trillion won (2.62 billion dollars) or 15% of the proposed transaction.
"It's still early to say that SK Hynix can get a significant share in Toshiba, but there is a high probability of cooperation with Toshiba in the development and production of technology," said Hama Financial Investment analyst Kim Rok-ho,.