Toshiba agrees to give Western Digital 2 weeks’ notice

TOKYO: Toshiba Corp has agreed to give Western Digital Corp two weeks’ notice before closing any sale of a memory chip unit that would involve transferring joint venture shares that Western Digital claims give it a say in the US$18 billion (RM76.8 billion) sale of the unit.

San Francisco Superior Court judge Harold Kahn on Friday approved an agreement between the two.

Notice from Toshiba to Western Digital will give the latter the opportunity to come back to the court or an arbitration panel to argue for a chance to stop the deal.

The agreement also puts off a final decision on the question of whether the California court has jurisdiction over Toshiba, one of Japan’s largest companies.

Toshiba was scrambling to sell its flash memory unit to cover losses from its nuclear reactor business. The company was inching towards deals to cap its liabilities from the nuclear unit.

Late last month, Toshiba announced its preferred bidder was a group made up of Bain Capital, South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix and Japanese-government backed banks that offered US$18 billion. But that deal has not come together, so Toshiba’s board met last week to consider other bidders.

Western Digital, which was among those being considered, sued Toshiba in San Francisco County Superior Court last month, saying it believed a joint venture with Toshiba meant Toshiba needed its consent to sell the flash business. Reuters