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.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
RSS