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