Toshiba in talks to sell chip business stake to Western Digital

Toshiba Corp is in talks to sell a minority stake in its flash memory business to U.S. chips business partner Western Digital Corp in a bid to boost its capital base, a source briefed on the discussions said on Wednesday.

Toshiba said in a statement earlier that it had been considering various options for its memory business, including a spin-off, but that nothing concrete had been decided.

California-based data storage company Western Digital operates a NAND flash memory plant in the city of Yokkaichi in Mie prefecture with Toshiba.