Apple Inc. and Dell Technologies Inc. may soon be part-owners of Toshiba Corp.’s flash memory chip business.

Toshiba said Wednesday it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with a consortium led by Bain Capital Private Equity LP to “negotiate a mutually satisfactory definitive agreement” over the sale of its flash unit by the end of this month.

The announcement suggests that the long-running saga over the future of Toshiba’s flash business is finally nearing its end. Toshiba has reportedly been negotiating with three different bidders, including a consortium led by rival flash memory maker Western Digital Corp. and another group headed by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., better known as Foxconn.

Bain’s consortium is said to include both Apple and Dell as well as the Development Bank of Japan. Apple’s and Dell’s involvement stems from their desire to secure their flash memory chip supply chain, which one analyst said was “vitally important” to both companies.

“Dell has the largest storage and server businesses in addition to the third-largest personal computer business,” said Patrick Moorhead, president and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Apple is the largest electronics buyer in the industry. We are currently in a reduced supply and high-priced situation in flash and what Dell and Apple both want is a more stable supply at lower cost.”

The Bain consortium is believed to have bid around $18 billion to take the flash memory business off of Toshiba’s hands, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Toshiba said in a statement that it will work to “expedite the conclusion of a stock purchase agreement” by the end of this month.

“The sale of TMC must promote further growth of TMC’s memory business, and return Toshiba group to positive equity,” said Toshiba Senior Vice President Yasuo Naruke. “The memory business is highly time sensitive. It requires timely investments, accelerated product development, and the ability to quickly ramp-up large-scale production capacity.”

The announcement comes despite intensive efforts on the part of Western Digital to block a deal with one of the rival consortiums. Back in May, Western Digital filed for arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce in the hope that it would prevent Toshiba from selling its chip business until its joint venture deals with Western Digital have been thoroughly reviewed.

That intervention caused Toshiba to miss its original deadline to sell the flash business, prompting the Japanese firm to sue its rival for $1 billion.

However, Western Digital still has a chance of trumping the Bain consortium’s bid despite the signing of the agreement. Toshiba noted in its announcement that the agreement is “non-binding,” and that it does not prohibit it from holding further negotiations with the other two bidders.

“It’s not yet clear to me who will win,” said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc. “But the winner will get a well-run memory chip business, that once was a crown jewel in Toshiba. Whoever gets Toshiba will be in better shape going forward.”

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