Tsinghua's expected bid for Micron faces many hurdles

San Francisco

A CHINESE state-backed company's plan to buy US chipmaker Micron Technology faces no shortage of obstacles - questions about the price, worries on Capitol Hill, an aggressive regulator - and any one of them could torpedo the deal.

Analysts argued that Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd's proposed price, US$23 billion, was far too low. But China's critics on Capitol Hill worried about the impact on the Defense Department. And any deal would be likely to face a close look by the agency charged with vetting transactions that have potential national security concerns.