It's been an interesting time if you're an avid reader of memory-related news pieces. Between increasing prices, Toshiba's debacle and subsequent spin-off of their memory division, to Toshiba and Western Digital butting heads regarding acquisition of said spin-off, and today's news, little was left to thread. Now, reports are surfacing that place Western Digital's consortium as being the (as of yet unofficial) winner in the bid for Toshiba's partial spin-off of their memory division. The deal is being valued at $18.3 billion, Japanese news outlet Nikkan Kogyo says, with Toshiba planning to make a formal decision on Wednesday, with the signing of an agreement to come on Sept. 20.Toshiba themselves remain mum on the subject, with company representatives saying no decision has been made on the sale of Toshiba Memory, and that the company is not commenting on details of the bidding process. In addition to the Western Digital-backed consortium which also includes KKR & Co LP and Japanese government investors, Toshiba has said it is also considering a bid led by Bain Capital and South Korea's SK Hynix as well as one by Taiwan's Foxconn. The bolstering of Western Digital's memory production capabilities using Toshiba's own assets would likely bring the company towards a position of being able to really compete with Samsung, which would likely only bring increased competition and better products for consumers; on the other hand, this would also mean that Toshiba would be left in a weakened position towards its competitors. If the WD-led consortium does win the bidding process, we'd expect a lengthy review process from regulators.