Toshiba Said to Seek Bids for Chip Unit at $13 Billion Value

Toshiba Corp. is sending letters soliciting offers for its memory chip business this week and seeking bids that value it at about 1.5 trillion yen , according to people familiar with the matter. The Japanese conglomerate is offering a majority stake in the chip unit and would be willing to sell the entire business, said the people, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

‘The explosion in data is so great that it’s almost like, if you have storage space, we’ll take it!’

If you didn’t know any better, we were back in 1999 when Intel and Microsoft and Western Digital and Seagate were hot as freshly shot cannonballs, because we figured out how to get some “high speed” lines to connect personal computers to the world wide web. Of course, those companies are, with the exception of Intel, really very different beasts now.

Western Digital’s Rally to Slow

WDC has doubled since the low made in May, but this rapid pace is probably going to slow as momentum has weakened and overhead resistance looms. This analysis is not different from our observations back on Dec. 3 when we said, “I would trade WDC from the long side, risking below $60 even though gains may be slow going in the weeks ahead.”

Toshiba Shares Plunge on Reports of U.S. Nuclear Writedown, Asset Sales

Toshiba shares plunged in Tokyo on reports it will need to take a larger write down on its U.S. nuclear business and seek cash from its American partner Western Digital Toshiba shares plunged again in Tokyo Thursday following media reports the electronics giant will need to take a larger writedown on its U.S. nuclear business and potentially seek cash from its American partner Western Digital Corp. Japanese media said cost overruns at its CB&I Stone & Webster unit will push writedowns in the newly acquired business to between Y500 billion and Y700 billion , much higher than the company’s original estimate of $87 million.