Western Digital demands future stake in Toshiba chip unit

December 4, 2017

Tokyo- Western Digital Corp. is seeking to acquire a stake in Toshiba Memory Corp. when the Toshiba Corp. unit goes public after being sold, Jiji Press learned on Saturday.

If the demand is accepted, Western Digital will drop its complaint filed with an international arbitration court against the Japanese flash memory business partner's planned sale of the chip unit, informed sources said.

While Western Digital and Toshiba are believed to have almost reached an agreement to settle their legal dispute over the sale, the US hard disk drive maker is in the final stages of talks with US private equity firm Bain Capital, which leads an international consortium that is set to buy the Toshiba unit.

Within the consortium, including US technology giant Apple Inc., there are concerns that Western Digital's influence will grow stronger over the flash memory unit's management. Jiji Press