The feud between Toshiba Corp and its US joint-venture partner Western Digital over a planned sale of Toshiba’s lucrative flash-memory unit is being aired at a Tokyo court.
At the first hearing of the case yesterday, Toshiba’s lawyers demanded ￥120 billion (US$1.1 billion) in damages from Western Digital for allegedly interfering with its business and hurting its credibility as a company.
Western Digital’s lawyers urged the court to throw Toshiba’s case out, saying it has filed a competing claim with an arbitration court in San Francisco, where the same questions are being addressed.
The Tokyo District Court’s ruling could determine whether or not the sale, needed to keep financially strapped Toshiba afloat, can proceed.
Toshiba has been hobbled by losses at the US nuclear operations of its subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.
Toshiba reached a deal, estimated at ￥2 trillion, in September with an international consortium headed by Bain Capital investment fund to sell the memory chip joint venture. It is hoping to close the deal by the end of March.
Western Digital opposes the sale.
In a somber courtroom, Yukio Nagasawa, one of six attorneys present who were representing Toshiba, questioned Western Digital’s actions. He said the company had never joined the bid for the memory business, but instead tried to persuade banks not to give Toshiba financing and pressured potential bidders not to bid.
“There is no basis to say approval from Western Digital is needed to sell the shares,” he told the court.
Nagasawa contended that the case should be heard in a Japanese court.
He also said there was a risk Western Digital might disclose technological secrets, since it was so intent on blocking the sale.
Western Digital lawyer Takashi Sugawara argued the company’s actions made sense and said the company had good reasons to oppose the sale.
The sale should be put on hold pending an arbitration ruling in San Francisco, he said.
Sugawara also said Western Digital was concerned over South Korean rival chipmaker Hynix’s involvement in the Bain consortium.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS