Report: Micron and another U.S. company interested in buying major Japanese chip maker
Micron Technology is one of two American companies considering a potential deal to buy Kioxia Holdings Corp., a Japanese semiconductor company, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Boise-based Micron and Western Digital Corp., headquartered in San Jose, California, are interested in Kioxia.
Formerly known as Toshiba Memory, Kioxia has about 15% of the NAND, or flash, memory market and 30% through a joint venture with Western Digital, Credit Suisse analyst John Pitzer told The Street financial website. Micron has about 11% of the NAND market, The Street reported. Flash chips are common in phones, USB drives and digital cameras.
Micron declined to address the report.
“Micron does not comment on rumors or speculation,” company spokesperson Tate Tran told the Idaho Statesman by email.
Kioxia is jointly owned by Toshiba Corp. and a group led by private equity group Bain Capital, which has controlling interest. Western Digital had shown interest in the company in 2017, when it was still Toshiba Memory.
Last year, Kioxia backed off from plans for an initial public offering of stock. At the time, Kioxia was valued at $20 billion. The Wall Street Journal said the deal being discussed could value it at $30 billion.
With the report, Micron stock jumped 4.8% on Thursday. It closed at $92.41. Western Digital stock climbed 6.92%, to $71.37.
On Wednesday, Micron reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $603 million. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and stock option expense, came to 98 cents per share. That surpassed analysts’ estimates by 3 cents per share.
Micron sales and profits have climbed amid a worldwide surge in demand for chips driven by 5G telephone service, artificial intelligence and data centers. Micron makes both NAND and dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM.
“Our technology leadership in both DRAM and NAND places Micron in an excellent position to capitalize on the secular demand driven by AI and 5G, and to deliver new levels of user experience and innovation across the data center and intelligent edge,” CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said Wednesday in announcing quarterly earnings.
