In a move that's being seen as a significant peace offering to the Trump administration,... China has given the green light to the sale of a majority stake in Toshiba's huge microchip business to a group led by U.S. investment firm, Bain Capital.
The approval had been on ice for months, but Toshiba said Thursday that the roughly 18 billion U.S. dollar acquisition is set to be completed on June 1st.
Korean chip giant SK Hynix is helping fund the deal and could eventually take a stake in the Toshiba unit.
The deal is expected to massively increase SK Hynix's global market share in NAND flash-memory chips, which store data in everything from smartphones to servers.
Clearance of the deal, which was first announced in September of last year, came less than two weeks before a deadline on the decision and as Chinese negotiators hold trade talks in the U.S.