Toshiba, Bain heads together highlight memory-chips sale

The heads of Toshiba’s memory chip business and Bain Capital, the investment fund buying it, say they hope to close the deal by March despite persisting opposition from Toshiba’s U.S. joint venture partner Western Digital.

Appearing with Toshiba Memory Chief Yasuo Naruke, Bain Japan chief Yuji Sugimoto said his consortium is giving full support to the plan.

Toshiba Memory and Bain gave media in Japan a tour Friday of a flash-memory chip manufacturing plant in this central Japanese industrial town to highlight the factory’s technological prowess and business potential.

Tokyo-based Toshiba Corp., suffering massive losses from its nuclear business, sorely needs the sale to survive. Its U.S. nuclear operations at Westinghouse Electric Co. filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.