Western Digital tries to stop the sale of Toshiba’s chip business

The US company sought the injunction in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco preventing Toshiba Corporation from transferring its three NAND flash-memory joint ventures operated with Western Digital – something that could put the entire bidding carousel surrounding the business in disarray. "Western Digital has been working tirelessly to reach an agreement that is beneficial to all stakeholders. Toshiba Corporation's attempts to circumvent our contractual rights have left us with no choice but to take this action,” Steve Milligan, CEO of Western Digital states in a press release. “It is our concern that, left unchecked, Toshiba would pursue a course that clearly violates these rights and also runs decidedly counter to the best interests of the JVs and also to the hard working people at Toshiba Corporation's NAND Flash business in Japan,” Milligan continues. Western Digital issued the following statement: Western Digital filed a request for injunctive relief in order to protect its interest in the JVs and its consent rights. Toshiba has no right to offer to transfer its JV interests to a third party and has no ability to enter into any transaction with a third party without obtaining our consent. We are confident in our ability to protect our interests and rights. On May 14, 2017, Western Digital announced that several of its SanDisk subsidiaries filed a Request for Arbitration with the ICC International Court of Arbitration related to the three NAND flash-memory joint ventures operated with Toshiba, and Western Digital is moving forward with the arbitration.