Apple wants to buy the division of the Toshiba company that produces NAND memories for mobile terminals and other types of electronic products, and it is available for sale. Various rumors have announced so far that a variety of companies are interested in buying this division, but it has a value of 18 billion dollars, so not every company can afford it.
Apple has vast resources to buy companies and could pay over 18 billion dollars, but those from Foxconn would have already made an offer of 27 billion dollars for this division. It is speculated that Apple would be involved in the offer, but the Japanese authorities would not really want this division to be sold to a company in China, where most of the Foxconn factories are located.
As a solution to this problem, those from Apple would like to buy only a part of the Toshiba division that produces NAND memories, Toshiba going to keep another part of the shares. Together, Apple and Toshiba would remain majority shareholders of that division, and so the government would not worry that an unwanted company could have access to the technologies developed by those from Toshiba.
What will happen in the end is hard to say, but if Apple were to buy a part of Toshiba, it could get lower costs for the NAND memories used in all iDevices. For now, those from Toshiba are analyzing the offers made so far, so it remains to be seen what they will decide and which company will be chosen to buy the shares available for sale.
"Apple is moving to buy struggling Japanese conglomerate Toshiba's chip business. The US firm is willing to spend billions of dollars to obtain a substantial stake. Its aim is to secure a stable supply of memory chips for its iPhones. Apple would have Toshiba keep some shares so the Japanese and US firms combined, will have a majority stake."
