Last week, Toshiba already warned that it could, if necessary, limit the access of Western Digital Corporation employees to the offices and workshops of the joint venture with SanDisk, which manufactures solid state memory. Representatives of WDC can simultaneously lose access to the computer networks of the joint venture.
Toshiba is forced to take these measures, as WDC ignores the arguments of the Japanese side in the dispute over the legitimacy of selling assets for the release of solid state memory. The Japanese believe that an American partner who owns SanDisk assets can not dictate the terms of Toshiba's core assets sale, or somehow prevent such actions. WDC also believes that Toshiba should coordinate its steps in this direction with the legal successor of SanDisk, which it is.
The CFO of WDC has already stated this month that each of the potential buyers of Toshiba assets that are mentioned in the news is a problematic candidate. The problem is that Foxconn is ready to offer about $ 26 billion for the assets of the Toshiba division, and the money of the Japanese corporation is very much needed now. According to preliminary estimates, annual net losses reached $ 8.4 billion, and without the sale of the solid-state memory business, the situation will continue to worsen. . However, WDC does not have sufficient funds to beat competitors' rates in the struggle for Toshiba assets. For this reason, the US hard drive manufacturer is trying to exert pressure on Japanese partners through legal procedures.
There is another nuance - WDC has not yet consolidated its participation in the joint venture with Toshiba, so the Japanese side still has legitimate reasons not to allow the opponent's employees to venture in Japan, where solid-state memory is produced jointly with SanDisk. It is interesting that the employees of SanDisk itself should keep access to the workplace - apparently, the transfer of staff to the staff of WDC has not yet been fully implemented.