OREANDA-NEWS. Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and OPTIS Co., Ltd. on the transfer of the optical disc drive (ODD) business that Toshiba operates in partnership with Samsung Electronics to OPTIS, a Korean company and manufacturing partner of ODDs.

Under the terms of the agreements, Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation (TSST), Toshiba and Samsung Electronics' Japan-based joint holding company for the ODD business, will transfer to OPTIS its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Korea Corporation (TSST-K), in three years' time. As the first step in the transfer process, OPTIS will subscribe to a new issue of TSST-K's shares in April this year, which will dilute TSST's shareholding in TSST-K to 50.1%.

Upon the execution of the agreements, TSST-K will continue to operate as before and maintain current employment.