Toshiba Memory is facing price reduction due to oversupply

Do you remember that Toshiba sold most of shares of NAND OEM established by Toshiba and Western Digital to Bain Capital-led consortium last June for $18 billion? Before the sale to Bain, Toshiba joint venture was split into an independent Toshiba Memory Corporation (TMC) business, of which Toshiba itself owns a 40% stake.

The Nikkei report in October 2018 referred to TMC initial public offering in 2019, but a Reuters report in December countered the report, saying that Nobuaki Kurumatani, chief executive of TMC, planned to float in 2020/21.
However, TMC needs funds for research and development, when 3D NAND is developing. The industry is moving from 64 layers to 96 layers of 3D NAND, and 128-layer NAND is about to emerge. This shift is expensive and complex.
Nobuaki Kurumatani thought Toshiba Memory is in a state of oversupply of NAND, resulting in price reduction. However, it is temporary, and demand will pick up in the second half of this year. This will provide a more positive background for any IPO and help prove a higher capacity flash wafer by adding additional layers to each NAND die.
We have asked Toshiba and Western Digital to comment. "We don’t intend to speculate or comment at this time," a spokesman for Western Digital said. Similarly, Toshiba said, "We has no comment on initial public offerings".