Apple May Spend Several Billion Dollars to Obtain 'Substantial Stake' in Toshiba's Memory Chip Business

[MacRumors]

Apple may spend several billion dollars to obtain a "substantial stake" in Toshiba's memory chip business, according to Japanese public broadcaster NHK. Reuters cited NHK as saying Apple's stake would be greater than 20 percent.

Given concerns from Japanese government officials about Toshiba selling "critical technologies" to overseas buyers, Apple would reportedly have Toshiba keep some shares so that the company retains partial Japanese ownership.

Apple is also considering teaming up with its manufacturing partner Foxconn, which is trying to acquire about 30 percent of the stake, the report said.

Foxconn allegedly offered Toshiba up to 3 trillion Japanese yen ($30 billion) as a standalone bid, but a subsequent report said Toshiba would likely reject the bid due to Foxconn's ties with China, where it operates multiple factories.

Apple's other manufacturing partner TSMC has reportedly already withdrawn its bid, while other potential suitors are said to include technology giants Amazon and Google and rival memory chipmakers SK Hynix and Western Digital. Apple itself was named as a potential bidder by a separate source earlier this month.

Toshiba announced plans to sell its NAND flash memory business in January in order to raise funds to cover write-down costs associated with its U.S. nuclear subsidiary Westinghouse Electric, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March. The company expects to face $9 billion in related charges.

Apple dual sources 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB flash storage from Toshiba and SK Hynix for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Toshiba, facing an uncertain future, is supposedly expected to select the winning bidder of its memory chip business by June.

Article Link: Apple May Spend Several Billion Dollars to Obtain 'Substantial Stake' in Toshiba's Memory Chip Business

 

[MH01]

This is a worthwhile investment. Even if they continue to ditch computers, they will benefit in thier idevices .

 

[Michael Scrip]

Own the vertical...

Or as much as possible!

 

[Applebot1]

Apple investing will help leviate any future supply constraints. Also won't be at the merci of other manufacturers.

Hope they are successful in pulling this deal off.

 

[BvizioN]

If it did for Beats I can't see why not for Toshiba!!

 

[Avieshek]

Better use Samsung's UFS based flash-storage along with the NVMe controller in iPhone to make the fastest combo ever seen. (Instead of eMMC + NVMe)

And with Apple's new APFS (Apple File System), the results will be exciting.
Hope, the last word convinces Tim.

 

[MH01]

If it did for Beats I can't see why not for Toshiba!!

Very different investment.

Hardware wise they got nudda from Beats....and have also invested almost zero in improving that hardware. Though I'm sure Beats headphones are also in that "amazing pipeline"

 

[chr1s60]

Seems to make sense. Plays an important role in what Apple does as a business.

 

[rp2011]

I think it's for the best that Toshiba retain a good chunk and ownership. Apple needs the tight connection, but manufacturering is not really their thing. And Toshiba management is probably better than Apple management in that Apple is spread pretty thin already.

 

[FreeAngel]

Go For it Apple!! If it means getting an iPhone or iPad with 512GB or larger space (At a good price) then I support it!

 

[macs4nw]

Even a sizeable minority stake in Toshiba's memory chip business, could certainly help Apple in their ability to secure large future memory chip orders, regardless of who will be the eventual successful bidder.

 

[mi7chy]

Apple probably realize that they'll be trailing competitors like Samsung that produce their own core components from DRAM, flash memory, display technology, camera sensor, SoC, baseband radio, etc. and even their own state of the art fabs.

 

[G4DPII]

As Foxxcon were going to bid $27b for this part of the business alone, several $B is going to buy feck all of a stake in it.

It would make perfect sense for Apple to buy into this part of Toshiba, if they want any influence at all it's have to be a substantial amount.

 

[emm386]

this is probably the perfect business opportunity for Apple.

Reliable, high quality memory of any kind with a lot of respectable know-how.

Also this would put Samsung under quite a bit of pressure, strenghtening Apple's negotiating stand.

Go buy it already, it makes no sense to be the richest guy on the cementary!

 

[lostngone]

IF Apple is willing to spend several Billion to obtain a stake in Toshiba yet won't spend a quarter of that to update the Macintosh hardware line in timely fashion then I say...

SHAME ON YOU APPLE!

 

[LeonardXW]

Why Apple need to partner with Foxcon? Can Apple acquire it alone?

 

[Kajje]

Why Apple need to partner with Foxcon? Can Apple acquire it alone?

Antitrust is much less of a thing in the East.
On top of that I'd rather have a significant stake in X (which owns Y) than just to own Y. It would basically get me 2 for 1, for less than 1.

 

[LeonardXW]

Antitrust is much less of a thing in the East.
On top of that I'd rather have a significant stake in X (which owns Y) than just to own Y. It would basically get me 2 for 1, for less than 1.

If that's the case, this make Apple cannot abandon Foxcon as long as he require the technology the company acquired.

 

[oldoneeye]

Much more sensible than trying to run your own fab ....

 

[samcraig]

Will not lower cost of memory upgrades on their devices.

 

[oldoneeye]

Will not lower cost of memory upgrades on their devices.

agreed, but the NAND market is constrained and this will give them more supply
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Why Apple need to partner with Foxcon? Can Apple acquire it alone?

They could, but do Apple really want to get into Semiconductor manufacturing ? ..... it's a totally different game

 

[maflynn]

Make sense, and it could prove be beneficial down the road, hopefully it will work out for them to get Toshiba

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

This is like buying the plastic factory to get cheaper Legos.

Sometimes it's just easier to negotiate a lower price and let the Lego company just make them.

 

[Rainshadow]

This is like buying the plastic factory to get cheaper Legos.

Sometimes it's just easier to negotiate a lower price and let the Lego company just make them.

Except, there are dozens of companies wanting to buy the same legos from this company, and owning a sizable chunk of it would guarantee Apple would have a better supply of legos to sell.

 

[macintoshi]

Better use Samsung's UFS based flash-storage along with the NVMe controller in iPhone to make the fastest combo ever seen. (Instead of eMMC + NVMe)

And with Apple's new APFS (Apple File System), the results will be exciting.
Hope, the last word convinces Tim.

Isn't ZFS better than APFS