Toshiba Corp accepts $15 bn buyout offer from Japanese consortium

Toshiba Corp. accepted a buyout offer from a Japanese consortium, as the iconic conglomerate moved a step closer to ending a troubled chapter in its more-than-140-year history. Shares jumped on Friday in Tokyo.

The Tokyo-based company’s board approved on Thursday a bid of about 2 trillion yen ($15.3 billion) from a group led by domestic private equity firm Japan Industrial Partners Inc., or 4,620 yen per share, it said in a statement. The offer is at about a 9.7% premium to Toshiba’s closing price on Thursday. Its shares rose 6.1% to 4,471 yen as of 9:09 a.m. local time.

As the next step, a tender offer is expected to start in late July, with the exact schedule to be announced later, the company said.