Toshiba eyes co-owned SanDisk Japanese Flash factories

Get your mitts off, Samsung

Toshiba wants to buy SanDisk's share of the two firms' jointly owned Japanese manufacturing facilities, it has been claimed.

The finger has been pointed at Samsung's attempt to acquire SanDisk, Japanese-language newspaper Nikkei reports, with Toshiba apparently unwilling to let its rival acquire a stake in the Flash memory ventures it current co-owns with SanDisk.

So, before Samsung can acquire the American company - if it purchases the firm - Toshiba wants to buy out SanDisk's share of the two joint-ventures, both companies running Flash memory factories in Mie Prefecture, Japan.

According to the paper, Toshiba would cough up up to ¥100bn ($984m) for SanDisk's 49.9 per cent stakes in the JVs. That's cash SanDisk could use right now - it's been hit hard by falling Flahs prices.