Including Sharp, a subsidiary of Hon Hai, a total of five to six companies are expected to take part in the Hon Hai plan, according to the official.

In the second round of auction for Toshiba Memory Corp., Hon Hai placed its bid in cooperation with Sharp. The Taiwanese company will partner with the US firms to ease Japanese government concern about an outflow of flash memory technologies to China and Taiwan.

The other participants to the second round included US investment fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix Inc.

Western Digital Corp. of the United States, Toshiba's memory business partner, is seeking to buy Toshiba Memory without participating in the bidding. (Jiji Press)