Japan chipmaker Kioxia, Western Digital close to merger: sources

Japanese chipmaker Kioxia Holdings Corp. and its U.S. peer Western Digital Corp. are expected to agree on a merger as early as this month, sources familiar with the matter said Friday, a deal that would create the world's leading producer of memory chips for PCs and smartphones.The two companies plan to set up a holding company to integrate their operations of producing NAND flash memory chips, widely used in electronic devices. They aim to list the new company on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the United States, according to the sources.The move comes as chipmakers are facing stiff global co…READ FULL ARTICLE