Western Digital Corp. said Wednesday it has taken legal steps against Toshiba Corp.'s investment in a new production site at their joint-venture chip plant, just hours after the Japanese firm rejected the California-based company's bid to acquire its semiconductor unit.
Western Digital filed an arbitration request with the International Court of Arbitration, seeking to prevent Toshiba from making investments in the "Fab 6" manufacturing facility at their flash memory plant in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, without first giving SanDisk Corp., its subsidiary, the chance to make a comparable investment.
Claiming Toshiba's investment plan is a breach of their joint venture agreement, the legal action comes after Toshiba decided to sell its chip unit Toshiba Memory Corp. to a Japanese-U.S.-South Korean consortium led by U.S. investment fund Bain Capital.