Western Digital has offered to withdraw from Toshiba bid

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Western Digital is said to have offered to withdraw from the group that is in the running to take over Toshiba’s nand memory division. In return, WD wants a stronger position in the current joint venture between Western Digital’s subsidiary SanDisk and Toshiba.

Reuters reports this on the basis of two sources who are familiar with the state of affairs in the takeover battle. If Western Digital pulls out, that could accelerate the acquisition. The talks are taking longer than planned, partly because the group of takeover candidates to which WD belongs and Toshiba cannot agree on the interest that WD will receive in the company. Toshiba would like to limit that interest to avoid lengthy investigations by competition authorities.

Recently, WD offered to Toshiba to acquire the nand memory division of the Japanese manufacturer, without taking control of the company. Thanks to that concession, WD hopes Toshiba will sell the chip branch to the American company. WD had offered to settle for a maximum of one third of the votes.

A consortium with WD, led by a Japanese government fund, would like to offer approximately 14.7 billion euros for the chip division of the Japanese manufacturer. It was recently announced that a consortium including Apple and SK Hynix has offered a converted EUR 15.1 billion for the nand memory division.

Toshiba and WD have been equally embroiled in a legal battle over the acquisition of the memory division, with the companies making mutual accusations. In June, Toshiba sued WD for frustrating the division’s sale and alleged unfair competition. Toshiba claimed compensation of the equivalent of 942 million euros. Earlier, WD went to an arbitration committee to prevent Toshiba from selling the chip division.

Toshiba spun off its nand memory production into a separate company called Toshiba Memory on April 1, and is selling this part because it is experiencing financial difficulties after a series of setbacks. After Samsung, Toshiba is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of nand memory.

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