In an AMD-like move to generate more short-term liquidity so as to strengthen its somewhat precarious position, Toshiba may be moving towards one of the most interesting shakeups in the NAND production field: a possible spin-off of its NAND production business into a separate company.

This move to restructure comes in the wake of recent snags and strategic mistakes for the company - such as the $1.2 billion dollar accounting "misstated" earnings, which created difficulties for the company to refinance itself in the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Also not negligible was a gross miscalculation on the amount of debt of the CB&I Stone and Webster company that Toshiba acquired so as to facilitate its U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric nuclear plant subsidiary investment. This "miscalculation", where Toshiba considered the "goodwill" booking charges at $87 million, where recently restated as a roughly-defined "several billion U.S. dollars."Western Digital enters the picture because of WD's financial health, and the fact that both companies already cooperate in the joint Flash Forward NAND production business - with Toshiba being a major partner of SanDisk, before WD acquired the company for $19 billion in 2015. However, Toshiba's semiconductor operations, which includes the joint venture, accounts for nearly 80% of Toshiba's operating profit, so completely alienating the production business would have dire long-term consequences.

This is where the spin-off part of the equation comes into play, allowing Toshiba to sell a partial stake in the new company - estimated at 20% - to generate a predicted ~$2.5 billion - a "quick" liquidity shot which should allow the company to plow through its currents difficulties. And with the Flash Forward initiative being critical to WD's long-term prospects in the NAND market, WD is the most likely to invest in Toshiba's spin-off.