Western Digital has bid to buy Toshiba’s memory business, wants to avoid SK Hynix partnership

Over the last couple of months, Western Digital and Toshiba have been embroiled in an ugly legal battle. Toshiba is currently looking to sell off Toshiba Memory Corp, which co-owns a NAND manufacturing plant in Japan with Western Digital. We knew that WD wanted a say in Toshiba's TMC sale but the story seems to go a bit deeper than that, as new documents show that WD has made six bids for ownership.

Toshiba is trying to sell Toshiba Memory Corp (TMC) in order to recoup from a slew of financial losses. So far, several companies have been rumoured to be in the running to pick up TMC, and by extension, a big factory partnership with Western Digital. In order to avoid being forced into a partnership it doesn't want, WD has made six bids for TMC since March.

As reported by The Register, court documents filed by WD show that the company has made sensible bids for TMC, with value amounts being ‘in line' with what has previously been reported in the press- meaning somewhere around $2 billion.

In particular, Western Digital seems to want to avoid being forced into a partnership with SK Hynix. According to WD's estimations, SK Hynix is a year or two behind tech-wise compared to the Toshiba/WD joint venture factory. If Toshiba sold its share to SK Hynix, one of WD's biggest competitors would catch up.

This all follows on from Toshiba's recent lawsuit filing, accusing Western Digital of illegally interfering with its sale.

KitGuru Says: This latest information does help explain a few things about this case. Still, it seems that neither company is willing to relent, so we can expect to be hearing more about this as the months go on. 

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