By separating its chip division and selling a part of its shares, Toshiba hopes to protect itself against an imminent multi-billion dollar writedown. The company is trouble due to huge costs overrun at an nuclear power plant in the United States.
Toshiba plans to sell around 20% of its stakes in the new seperate chip company but might need to sell more in the future a financial analyst told Reuters, "the NAND business is the only one with value, as it makes up all of the semiconductor profits, which comprise 75 percent of the overall company's profit. I won't be surprised if they sell another 20 percent in a few years time and then another 20 percent."
Western Digital would seem a natural buyer as it bought Sandisk last year. Toshiba and Sandisk (now Western Digital) are in a joint venture called Flash Vision that manufacturers NAND memory.
