SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, the world’s second-largest memory chip maker, said on Wednesday it has not approached Japan’s SoftBank Group for a partnership concerning a possible deal with memory chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp.
A Nikkei report earlier on Wednesday said SK Hynix is reluctant to back a merger between U.S. rival Western Digital’s memory chip operations and Kioxia, in which SK Hynix holds a stake. The report went on to say that SK Hynix had sounded out SoftBank for a partnership in case the merger falls through.
“SK Hynix denies Nikkei’s report that the company approached SoftBank for collaboration with regard to the Kioxia-Western Digital deal,” the company said in a statement, without commenting on its stance on the merger.
Kioxia declined to comment. SoftBank did not have an immediate comment.
Kioxia and Western Digital Corp are pursuing a merger as a global chip glut and weak demand for flash memory chips strengthens pressure for chipmakers to consolidate.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Anton Bridge; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
