WD Warns Toshiba Against Deal With Broadcom

A global battle is brewing among three tech giants with sizeable operations in Orange County.

San Jose-based Western Digital Corp. is trying to nix a bid by Broadcom Ltd. and others to acquire Toshiba Corp.’s flash memory business.

WD Chief Executive Steve Milligan told Tokyo-based Toshiba that any sale would violate terms of their joint venture, according to an April 9 letter obtained by Reuters.

The companies have been strategic partners for more than a decade. Last year, their joint venture established a 297,000-square-foot flash memory manufacturing plant in Yokkaichi, Japan.

The chip business is valued at $18 billion, according to Reuters, but competing bids have reached $27 billion, led by Apple supplier Foxconn—far more than WD is willing to pay.

The latest development comes as Toshiba prepares to take a $9 billion write-off of its failing U.S. nuclear power business, which has prompted the need for an immediate cash infusion.

Toshiba is the third largest foreign-owned business in OC, with an estimated 1,745 workers. Its local operation includes the headquarters of several North American units that are primarily at its 450,000-square-foot campus at 9740 Irvine Blvd. in the Irvine Spectrum. The campus was sold last year for about $65 million.

The Business Journal this month was the first to report that Western Digital moved its headquarters from Park Place to Silicon Valley. The company employs an estimated 1,600 here.

Broadcom Ltd., which changed its name last year after Singapore-based Avago Technologies Inc. acquired Broadcom Corp. for $37 billion, employs about 1,600 locally, making it the fifth largest foreign-owned company here.

Since its sale, Broadcom has shed more than 750 local jobs—roughly a third of its Irvine operation—and sold two business units. Four midrise buildings under construction at its new office campus at the Great Park Neighborhoods development site are up for sale.

Patent Suit Winner

A subsidiary of Newport Beach-based Acacia Research Corp. won a patent infringement lawsuit against Motorola Inc.

A jury in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas awarded Saint Lawrence Communications LLC $9.2 million for an infringement claim related to voice coding technology in wireless networks.

Acacia licenses and sells patents. When it finds a company infringing a patent, it tries to strike a licensing deal or sues. It splits sales, licensing fees and court settlements with the patent holders.

The company, which has posted sizeable losses the past four years amid strategic shifts, has placed a big bet on Newport Beach startup Veritone Inc.

Veritone, which aims to build a software service melding artificial intelligence and big data to augment its primary ad placement business, filed a registration statement last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise about $12 million in an initial public offering.

Keeps on Truckin’

Telogis Inc., which maintained its Aliso Viejo operation after its $900 million sale last year to Verizon Communications Inc., signed a deal with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck of America Inc.

The New Jersey-based unit of Mitsubishi plans to install Telogis’ logistics software in its medium-duty, diesel cabover trucks, which are essentially big rigs whose cab is over the engine. 

Mitsubishi Fuso is a subsidiary of Daimler Trucks Asia, which sold about 168,000 vehicles in more than 160 markets in 2015, according to its website.