Toshiba's shareholders have agreed to split-off the company's NAND manufacturing division. The Japanese multinational wants to sell the division to cover for its nuclear division which filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday.
The NAND division is expected to be worth around $18 billion and according to Reuters there are 10 potential bidders including Western Digital, Micron, Foxconn and SK Hynix. However also the government-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, and Development Bank of Japan are expected to enter later bidding rounds as part of a consortium.
It's unclear whether Toshiba will sell most, or even all, of its unit that is world's second largest producer of NAND memory. The company is in a joint venture together with Western Digital (which acquired the initial partner, Sandisk) called Flash Vision and Toshiba also owns the OCZ brand.
The decision to sell (parts of) the NAND division made at an emotional shareholder meeting that lasted 3.5 hours and included lots of shouting and angry questions.
