Micron Technology is the likely to be the winner in the bidding for Elpida Memory Inc, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday. Toshiba and SK-Hynix were also reportedly interested in bidding for Elpida, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February with 448 billion yen ($5.6 billion) in liabilities.

In the final round of bidding that closed on Friday, U.S. chipmaker Micron offered around 200 billion yen ($2.5 billion) and pledged to keep the company's main Hiroshima plant and employees, NHK reported without citing sources.

SK hynix said earlier on Friday that it had dropped out of the race to buy Elpida. The South-korean commpany decided to pull out as the deal would not "strategically benefit" the company, SK Group's Chairman Chey Tae-won told reporters after a board meeting.

Elpida is the world's No.3 maker of DRAM chips, trailing Samsung Electronics and SK hynix with a market share of 12 percent.