Japan: Government pressure may cause Toshiba to reject best offer

Toshiba may forgo the highest bid for its semiconductor business, from Hon Hai Precision Industry, because of likely opposition from the Japanese and American governments, according to people familiar with the matter.

Taiwan’s Hon Hai, which has indicated its willingness to pay as much as $27 billion for the chip unit, would face resistance because of its ties to China, said the sources who asked to not be identified because the matter is private. That could drag out regulatory approvals and delay badly needed cash payments to Toshiba, raising the risks of such a deal, the people said. Hon Hai, the primary iPhone assembler for Apple, has most of its factories in mainland China.

As a result, Toshiba is giving serious consideration to lower bids, including a potential offer of about $18 billion from US chip-maker Broadcom, the people said. The Japanese government is organizing an alternative offer from Japanese companies that aims to inject $4.5 billion into the chip unit in exchange for a minority stake, one person said. Current bids are nonbinding and could change. The deadline for the next round of bidding is mid-May, one of the people said.

Full Content: Japan Times

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