Western Digital to raise Toshiba chip offer

Western Digital plans to raise its offer for Toshiba’s prized semiconductor unit to $18 billion or more, a person familiar with the matter said, in a last-ditch effort to clinch a deal both companies consider vital.

The US chipmaker is part of a consortium led by a Japanese government-backed fund. The group will present the new offer of 2 trillion yen or more by Thursday, when the struggling Japanese conglomerate is due to choose a preferred bidder for its Toshiba Memory unit, the world’s second-largest producer of NAND memory chips, the person told Reuters on Saturday.

Toshiba has been favouring a rival