Toshiba issued a press-release announcing it has sold TSST (Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology) to the Korean company Optis. The company is a joint venture with Samsung and manufactures optical disc drives such as CD, DVD and Blu-ray drives.
The company will be transferred to Optis in three years and the first step will be Optis purchasing 49.9% of the company by April this year.
Many optical storage manufacturers were in joint ventures between Japanese and Taiwanese or Korean companies. The Japanese provided patents and intellectual property, while the Taiwanese and Korean companies provided cheap manufacturing capabilities.
Companies that worked together in the past, for example, were Hitachi and LG, Philips (Dutch) and Benq, and Asus and Pioneer. Currently the optical drive market is declining and companies are either moving to new businesses, restructuring or closing down.
TSST will continue to operate as before and no employees will lose their jobs.
