WD takes Toshiba to arbitration for sale of NAND memory business

Western Digital has announced it will take legal measures in case of the sale of the NAND memory division of Toshiba. The company has filed a Request for Arbitration with an international arbitration court. Western Digital has an interest in the sale of the NAND division of Toshiba as they are in a joint venture together called Flash Vision.

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The arbitration demand seeks among other things an order requiring Toshiba to unwind the transfer to Toshiba Memory, and injunctive relief preventing Toshiba from further breaching the joint venture agreements by transferring its joint venture interests, or any interest in an affiliate that holds its joint venture interests, without Sandisk's (now part of Western Digital) consent.

"Toshiba’s attempt to spin out its joint venture interests into an affiliate and then sell that affiliate is explicitly prohibited without SanDisk’s consent," said Western Digital’s CEO Steve Milligan in a statement.

Toshiba hopes to sell a stake in its memory unit to to raise funds for an impairment loss in its bankrupt U.S. nuclear plant unit. Earlier this year Toshiba separated its memory division into a separate company called Toshiba Memory.

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WD filed for arbitration as the Flash Vision joint venture has an arbitration clause in its contract that gives WD the right to agree or disagree any sale of Toshiba's joint venture stake. The arbitration will likely delay Toshiba’s plans to sell a majority part of its stake in its memory business.

Besides WD, also Foxconn and Apple have been rumored to have bid for Toshiba's memory division.

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