Google, Amazon eye Toshiba's lucrative memory chip business

Google and Amazon joined a list of potential buyers eyeing Toshiba's lucrative memory chip business as the Japanese conglomerate seeks bidders to cover huge losses, a newspaper said on Saturday.

Toshiba has reportedly completed the first round of bidding for its prized memory chip business, seen as key for the cash-strapped company to turn itself around.

Some 10 foreign companies and funds, including Google and Amazon, tendered bids, the mass-circulation Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting unnamed sources.

The two US tech giants are expected to use Toshiba's memory chips for their cloud services, the daily said.

Taiwan's Hon Hai, which acquired Japanese electronics maker Sharp last year, has apparently bid more than 2 trillion yen ($18 billion), the daily said.

Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.

Toshiba shares jumped more than five percent on Friday after local media reported that bidders included Apple, US private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners and American chipmaker Broadcom.

Toshiba is expected to negotiate with individual candidates this month.

Local media said any foreign buyer would need to pass a Japanese government review, given concerns about security around systems already using Toshiba's memory chips.

Toshiba is the world's number two supplier of memory chips for smartphones and computers, behind South Korea's Samsung, and the business accounted for about a quarter of its 5.67 trillion yen in revenue last fiscal year.

The news report came after angry investors lambasted Toshiba executives at a shareholders meeting over its warning that annual losses could balloon to more than $9.0 billion.

The red ink is largely tied to huge cost overruns and construction delays at its US nuclear power unit Westinghouse Electric, which filed for bankruptcy protection late March. (read more)

Toshiba likely to miss quarterly earnings deadline: Sources

Toshiba Corp will likely miss a third deadline to report its quarterly business results, two sources told Reuters, forcing the Japanese conglomerate to ask for a fresh extension or face a possible delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

A third postponement of the October-December earnings, past the latest deadline of April 11, looks necessary because Toshiba's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers Aarata LLC, has questions about results for the business year through March 2016, said the sources. One of the sources has direct knowledge of the delay and the other was briefed on the matter.

Toshiba also may not be able to decide the favoured bidder or group for its semiconductor business by its general shareholder meeting in late June, said another person with direct knowledge of the matter. He had previously said the decision would be made in May, or at least before the shareholder meeting.

Toshiba and PwC officials could not be reached for comment in Tokyo outside business hours.

The Japanese conglomerate, which only recently emerged from a huge accounting scandal, has been dragged down by billions of dollars of cost overruns at its former U.S. nuclear unit, Westinghouse Electric Co.

Disagreements with auditors forced the company to postpone its earnings release in February and again in March. After April 11, Toshiba will have eight working days to publish its results for the three months that ended Dec. 31 unless it can persuade regulators at the Ministry of Finance to give it more time. (READ MORE)