Until recently, it was thought that the Western Digital and Kioxia transaction would be announced at the end of October, but the Nikkei news agency reported last night that talks on the subject were suspended. Opposition from SK Hynix, an equity investor in Kioxia since 2018, was reportedly the main obstacle to the deal.

According to the source, American Western Digital Corporation notified Kioxia of its intention to end the negotiation process due to opposition from SK Hynix. The latter, let’s remember, confirmed yesterday that he is ready to protect the interests of shareholders and oppose the merger of the assets of Western Digital and Kioxia related to the production of solid-state memory. The companies were also reportedly unable to reach an agreement with Kioxia’s major shareholder, investment firm Bain Capital, which led to the acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corporation’s assets in 2018.

At the time, SK hynix had invested a total of $2.67 billion in Kioxia’s capital; some of this ($856 million) was spent on convertible bonds; repayment of this amount would allow the Korean memory maker to gain control of a 15% stake in Kioxia. Japanese contestant. Kioxia is now content with the fourth place in the solid-state memory market, and SK hynix is ​​in second place, but if it merges with the former Western Digital, then together they can even surpass the market leader in this segment, Samsung Electronics.

South Korean company SK hynix had plans to work with Kioxia, but it could be disrupted due to the agreement with Western Digital. The collapse of this deal will not prevent Western Digital and Kioxia from continuing to produce memory in a joint venture in Japan.