Western Digital asks court to stop partner Toshiba from selling chips unit
Tokyo — Western Digital has sought international arbitration to stop partner Toshiba from selling its chips arm without its consent, potentially derailing a much-needed capital injection for the Japanese conglomerate. The two companies jointly operate Toshiba’s main semiconductor plant but Western Digital is not a favoured bidder for the world’s second-biggest NAND chip producer, having put in a much lower offer than other suitors, a source with knowledge of the matter has said. A legal battle could delay or put an end to an auction that could fetch about $18bn and has attracted suitors such as private equity firm KKR, Taiwan’s Foxconn and US chipmaker Broadcom. Toshiba is depending on the sale to cover billions in dollars in cost overruns at its now bankrupt US nuclear unit Westinghouse. The Japanese firm logged a ¥950bn ($8.4bn) annual net loss and had negative shareholder equity of ¥540bn, it said in an unaudited earnings release on Monday. After months of souring relations, West...
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