EXCLUSIVE: Toshiba seeks chips buyer June 15, blasts bidder Western Digital

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp aims to name a winner for its prized semiconductor unit next week, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, even as the struggling conglomerate criticised the chip partner that is fighting to win the lucrative business.

The laptops-to-nuclear giant lashed out hours earlier with a barbed lawyer's letter to partner Western Digital Corp, a move that may raise speculation that Toshiba is favouring the leading rival bid from U.S. chipmaker Broadcom Ltd.

Rushing to get a buyer for the prized Toshiba Memory unit to keep the empire alive, Toshiba will hold a board meeting on June 15 to tap the preferred bidder for Toshiba Memory, two sources said, setting the stage for a showdown on the sale of the prize jewel of an iconic firm struggling to survive huge losses on its now-bankrupt U.S. nuclear business in the wake of a $1.3 billion accounting scandal.

Toshiba did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The race for the lifeline sale of the chips unit has narrowed, sources told Reuters, to two main groups: Broadcom plus U.S. tech fund Silver Lake against a U.S.-Japan group of Toshiba chip partner Western Digital and Japanese government-related investors.

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Kentaro Hamada and Taro Fuse in TOKYO, Liana Baker in SAN FRANCISCO; Editing by William Mallard)