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Toshiba Sues Western Digital For $1 Billion in Damages (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the tussle-continues dept.

Toshiba has raised the stakes in an embittered legal row with its joint venture partner, suing Western Digital for a $1bn in damages and hoping Japanese courts will quash the US firm's interference in the sale of its memory chip business. From a report: The litigation, filed Wednesday in Tokyo District Court, seeks to stop Western Digital from making ownership claims over the enterprise that Toshiba is trying to sell. The Japanese company said in a statement that Western Digital's employees improperly obtained proprietary information. The relationship between Toshiba and Western Digital has gotten more acrimonious, as Toshiba moves toward a sale of the flash-memory division. Last month, Western Digital invoked an arbitration clause in their business agreement, seeking to block Toshiba's transfer of ownership of the unit to a separate legal entity in preparation for a sale. Toshiba, which has since reversed that transfer, then had its lawyers send a letter demanding that the U.S. company stop its "harassment" as Toshiba tries to sell the business.

28 comments

  1. Counterpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Counterpoint: Toshiba sells computers with crap hard drives, while WD drives are generally reliable. I'm sure the amount of frustration that could have been saved globally replacing all drives in toshiba products with WD could amount to a billion dollars, easily. They can call it even.

    1. Re:Counterpoint by sexconker · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Countercounterpoint. I've had 2 WD drives fail in the past few weeks, and a month-old replacement for one of them has just failed.

      Never buying WD again.

    2. Re:Counterpoint by guestapoo · · Score: 1

      Same here, I used to trust in WD, but their drives becomes more expensive (after the flood in Thailand), and less reliable.
      Using Toshiba is cheaper and has no problem.

    3. Re:Counterpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WD drives are not reliable, they are crap in fact, but the Japanese Toshiba and Hitachi drives are exremely high quality. Suck that up, if you can. (source: Backblaze regular HDD review)

  2. Fuck Toshiba. by Type44Q · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fuck Toshiba. Generally decent products over the years but they were never properly backhanded for selling that milling machine to the Soviets... who we've busted our asses protecting them from. Fuck 'em with a sharp stick.

    1. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What milling machine?

    2. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by known_coward_69 · · Score: 4, Informative

      in the 80's they sold a milling machine to the USSR that allowed them to build quieter submarines. and they did it after signing a contract saying they would not sell the tech or machinery

    3. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by Type44Q · · Score: 2

      BTW, it was multiple milling machines; I stand corrected.

    4. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

      What milling machine?

      Back in the mid 1980's Toshiba sold the Soviet Union a couple milling machines to make propellers for their submarines. At the same time a Norwegian company also sold them programs for making the propellers. Soviet subs had virtually silent propellers after they started using the Toshiba milling machines. The US congress was so pissed that they talked about banning all Toshiba sales in the US and the head of Toshiba resigned. I know that there were reports of Japan filing criminal charges again several Toshiba employees, but I don't recall what came of it.

    5. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by kbonin · · Score: 2

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      http://www.nytimes.com/1987/06...

    6. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Ah, so... modded down by shirr?

    7. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by orient · · Score: 1

      The sale allowed USSR to catch up to the US and made sure they don't have too much advantage over the USSR and don't grow too confident in their chance to disable the USSR with one swift nuclear attack. Basically, Toshiba ensured mutual assured destruction remained effective and, probably, saved the world this way.

      --
      Laudele lor desigur m-ar mahni peste masura.
    8. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why should a respected Japanese company be backhanded for selling milling machines? You're not to decide who on the planet is allowed to use a milling machine or not. You make enemies out of everyone in your stupid paranoia.

    9. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

      Oh sure, because on the one hand you have the US who protects freedom and democracy as much as we can in this imperfect world (and gave Germany, Japan, Iraq and Afghanistan back their countries as democratic, free nations) and on the other you have the USSR who wanted to subjugate the world and murdered tens of millions of their own citizens, invaded and occupied other nations for generations and who would readily have started WW3 if they thought they could avoid nuclear annihilation...

      Who wouldn't want to have the USSR equally powerful in military capacity to the freedom loving and peaceful USA. After all, if the USSR had ever had a decisive advantage (like the US exclusively having nuclear bombs immediately after WW2) they would have wiped out and/or ruled the world, rather than retiring quietly back to their own borders like the US did.

      There is so much stupid in your statement it makes my head spin. Moral equivalence and ignorance of history are a special kind of evil.

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
    10. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by orient · · Score: 1

      To consider that US did not nuke USSR out of morality is naivete. They did not have enough nukes to disable USSR in 1945 and, when the 3-4 nukes would have been gone, there was no way to defeat USSR at home. Second fail is to compare the 1940's USA with late '80s USA. The americans overturned democratic governement all over South America and Middle East in the meantime, so, no, US is not to be trusted, just feared and respected.

      --
      Laudele lor desigur m-ar mahni peste masura.
    11. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by guestapoo · · Score: 2
      Also, according to Japanese source, there was no evidence that Soviet improved there subs using Toshiba machine:
      Japanese wikipedia

      Also, according to the magazine supervised by the US Department of Defense, the quietness of the Soviet submarines improved after 1979, which is before the export of machine tools. Richard Armitage , who was then Assistant Secretary of Defense at the time, in a letter addressed to the House of Representatives military chairman of the House of Representatives, the Soviet nuclear submarine was equipped with a silent screw already three years before the incident, He said that he was opposed to sanctions against Toshiba. Furthermore, the quietness of submarines is not limited to the molding technology of screws but also to nuclear reactors and motor technology.

      Also it's coincided with the incidents in 80's, 90's, Japan rose as the most potential competitor to the U.S (which was predicted to be surpassed U.S in 90's), which called "Japan Bashing":

      During the 1980s, Japan Bashing reached a boiling point. Riding the late 1970s energy crisis, competition from Japanese car companies offering cheaper, fuel efficient cars became heated. Japan, however, was not interested in buying large American automobiles with steering wheels on the wrong side. The country was labeled as "protectionist", and protesters burned Japanese cars and flags, and the term "Japan Bashing" was coined.

    12. Re:Fuck Toshiba. by LeftCoastThinker · · Score: 1

      But the USSR did not know how many we had and it only took 2 for Japan to surrender because they believed we could keep bombing them with nukes. It would have probably only taken one for the USSR to surrender, considering the shape they were in. War is rarely about annihilation, it is about destroying your enemies will to fight. Don't believe the revisionist bullshit.

      The activity in the world by the US from the '50s to the '90s was with good intentions, if not always ideal results. The so called democratic governments that were overturned were brutal dictatorships or oligarchies who murdered millions of their own citizens. Only simpletons like you think that calling a government a "democratic republic" makes it so...

      Korean war: Korea was being invaded by communist proxies from China and the USSR and was in the middle of a shooting war when the US got involved.
        South Korea lives in comfort as a first world nation, North Korea is perpetually on the brink of starvation and a shooting war with the world as they sell nuclear weapons tech to rogue nations and develop ICBMs to try and threaten the world.

      Vietnam: Vietnam was also invaded by communist proxies from China and the USSR before the US got involved. About 900,000 men, women and children were murdered by the communists "democratic republic" government of Vietnam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      US activities in south and central America were mostly to deal with drug cartels who had taken over entire countries, or rogue dictators who were massively violating the human rights of their citizens. If you don't know this, go read something that is actually historically accurate, not some pointy headed idiot on NPR or BBC who hates the US...

      Iraq war 1 was in response to their invasion of an ally and strategic partner, Kuait. We told Saddam to leave and he gave us the finger, so we obliterated his military.

      Afghanistan was actively helping Al Queda who murdered 3000 US civillians and, unlike Pakistan, was openly resisting our efforts to eliminate Al Queda. So we invaded Afghanistan.

      Iraq war 2 was in response to Saddam's clams of biological, chemical (which he had used on the Iranians and the Kurds in the past) and nuclear weapons claims. Saddam was supporting terrorisim, paying money to homicide bombers families, and asserting that he had WMD and was willing to use them. He kicked out weapons inspectors, and 18 global intelligence agencies said he had WMD capacity. After the war, the US exported 550 TONS of uranium http://www.nbcnews.com/id/2554... from Iraq that Saddam had bought on the black market. We also found the equipment to manufacture nuclear bombs buried in Baghdad: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/... That he did not have a chance to use his chemical or biological weapons is a testament to US military air power effectiveness. That he didn't have a nuclear bomb yet was purely luck.

      --
      If you disagree, please post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like
  3. One billllllllllioooon dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So Dr. Evil runs Toshiba?

  4. $1 billion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's a lot of frosty damages

    1. Re:$1 billion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And lots of frothy santorum.

  5. In layman terms... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Toshiba wants to sell the cake while While Western Digital wants to eat it. It is clear that the joint venture isn't very functional.

    Blame Nuclear...

    1. Re:In layman terms... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I had a joint venture with a friend once. But after we smoked the joint, we just had to move on.

      Now all this talk of cake is giving me the munchies.

  6. Language geek's perspective by Idou · · Score: 4, Informative

    This whole need to sell their chip division started with some catastrophically poor decisions by Toshiba's Westinghouse subsidiary. Now Toshiba ability to remain a going concern is at risk by Western Digital's attempt to block this sale.

    The Chinese character (kanji) for Toshiba's To is that for East.

    So, clearly, this is a case of "East meets West" with disastrous results. . . Kinda of sad, considering that Toshiba's humble beginnings go back to over century ago. . .

    --
    Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
    1. Re:Language geek's perspective by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Former CEO Hisao Tanaka making a 151.8 billion yen ($1.2 billion) "accounting error" also didn't help.

    2. Re:Language geek's perspective by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Kinda of sad, considering that Toshiba's humble beginnings go back to over century ago...

      Unfortunately it's decisions of strategy like this that typically sink all the major past multinational behemoths of the industrial world.

  7. Bain Capital? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't Bain Capital in the business of destroying then flipping companies for a profit? Isn't that how Mitt Romney made his money?

  8. Never again WD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Their drives are cheap and unreliable, as the other American brands. Just look at Backblaze's regular HDD reviews. In the top division of reliability you always find HGST (Hitachi) and Toshiba. Fuck the American manufacturers and their stupid wars on other manufacturers with better and more reliable products (because that's all it's about).

    1. Re: Never again WD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HGST is also part of Western digital corp.