Toshiba is looking to spin off its semiconductor business to make up for massive losses in other areas

Most of us in the technology space know Toshiba as a company that makes business laptops and the occasional hard drive. However, the company also makes memory chips, among other things and apparently, it’s quite good at making said chips. Toshiba now wants to separate the memory chip business from the rest of the company. Valued at over $17 billion, the company is also looking for buyers keen on investing in the unit (up to $1.8 billion). Toshiba’s semiconductor business is second only to Samsung’s. The Financial Times (FT) reports that Toshiba’s other businesses are struggling and that it has faced “several billion dollars of writedowns”. Toshiba also has a handful of nuclear power projects in the US that have cost the company anywhere between $4bn to $7bn. FT’s report also points out that Toshiba’s shares have lost 45 percent of their value since announcing issues with the nuclear projects. Analysts believe that Toshiba might have to sell off a number of assets and businesses to make up for the huge losses. This includes the profitable semiconductor business. The report adds that Canon and Western Digital might be interested in a stake of the semiconductor business. Toshiba’s semiconductor business might be devalued to between 50 percent of 70 percent its current value to facilitate a quicker sale of a stake in the company, suggest insiders.