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Oi SA’s bankruptcy saga took a new twist this week as Chief Financial Officer Ricardo Malavazi Martins resigned, prompting a rebuke from Brazil’s telecommunications regulator, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Juarez Quadros, president of the regulator known as Anatel, told reporters yesterday the departure is “worrisome” and said that it worsens an already bad situation for the phone giant mired in $19 billion of debt. Bloomberg reported last week that the government is weighing a potential takeover of the nation’s biggest landline operator because the majority of Oi’s board and management were at odds over a recovery plan. Oi’s management and Nelson Tanure, whose Societe Mondiale is the phone carrier’s second-biggest shareholder, presented competing restructuring plans Sept. 27 at a board meeting. A majority of the board backed his proposal, but the executive team refused to sign on, creating an impasse.

Two weeks after filing for bankruptcy protection, Toys ‘R’ Us is debuting an augmented reality (AR) experience that it hopes will help reinvigorate its stores and make them destinations for shoppers who might otherwise choose to shop online, USA Today reported today. The AR activities — which plant computer generated images on top of a real world environment — tap into the interest sparked by the Pokemon Go craze last year. They will go live at 23 Toys ‘R’ Us stores today and then nationwide on Oct. 21. While the AR experience was being developed months before the company filed for chapter 11 protection to deal with $5 billion in long-term debt, efforts to make the retailer's roughly 1,600 stores more interactive will be key to the company's turnaround, says CEO Dave Brandon.

Toshiba Corp. said today it reached a legally-binding agreement with a group led by U.S. private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC to sell its memory chip unit for $17.7 billion, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Toshiba reached a deal with the group, which includes Apple Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Seagate Technology PLC, Japan's Hoya Corp. and South Korea's SK Hynix Inc. The unit will remain a Toshiba affiliate even after the deal's completion. Toshiba and Bain want to get the deal done by the end of March. Still, ongoing litigation with Western Digital Corp., which jointly operates the memory business with Toshiba, means the saga isn't over. Western Digital claims it has the right to vote on the sale. Another hurdle is receiving antitrust clearance, which could take six months or longer. Toshiba suffered huge losses from its U.S. nuclear subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Co.'s chapter 11 filing earlier this year, and it is rushing to close the deal to raise cash by March so it can remain listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Western Digital Corp. said today it will seek an injunction to block the sale of Toshiba Corp’s prized semiconductor business to a rival group, upping the ante in an acrimonious battle with its chip venture partner, Reuters reported. The latest legal action by the U.S. firm, which jointly invests in Toshiba’s main chip plant, comes in the wake of the Japanese conglomerate’s decision last week to sell the unit to a consortium led by Bain Capital LP and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix. The $18 billion agreement with the Bain group is, however, still unsigned, with Toshiba telling its main banks this week that Apple Inc., a member of the consortium and an important client, had yet to agree to key terms. Western Digital’s injunction is being sought with the International Court of Arbitration, where the California-based company, which argues no deal can be done without its consent, initiated proceedings against its partner earlier this year.

The board of Japanese conglomerate Toshiba has approved a plan to sell its lucrative microchip business to a group of American and Japanese buyers, bringing the company closer to a deal it may need to survive, the New York Times reported today. Details of the sale must still be finalized, Toshiba said yesterday, leaving open the possibility of another turn in a drawn-out bidding process marked by reversals, acrimony and confusion. The Japanese company said the microchip unit would be sold for 2 trillion yen, or roughly $18 billion. The structure of the deal is complicated, and Toshiba said it would retain partial control of the business. It was not clear yesterday how much would end up being owned by outside investors. Those investors primarily include Bain Capital, an American buyout firm, and two organizations controlled by the Japanese government, the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and the Development Bank of Japan.

The latest court reports show that telecoms firm Avaya, which filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, has filed a new motion with the bankruptcy court, requesting a third extension to its exclusive debtor plan, Computing reported yesterday. If accepted, the company will be able to solicit acceptances through both the 30th November 2017 and 21st January 2018. Since its second exclusivity extension in late July, Avaya has been able to negotiate a Stipulation of Settlement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., stating that the company has been able to resolve issues with qualified pension liabilities.

Toshiba, the embattled Japanese conglomerate, said yesterday that it needed more time to choose an outside investor for its microchip business, extending a period of uncertainty for the company as it seeks a multibillion-dollar cash infusion to stabilize its finances, the New York Times reported. Toshiba has veered among competing offers to buy a portion of the profitable chip unit. That business is the second-largest producer of so-called NAND flash memory chips, which are used to store data in smartphones and other digital devices. (Samsung Electronics of South Korea is the biggest.) It was the second time that Toshiba missed a self-imposed deadline to complete a deal for the business, which analysts say could be worth upward of 2 trillion yen, or around $18 billion. Toshiba needs the money that a sale would bring in to fill a hole in its balance sheet left by steep losses on nuclear power projects in the United States.

A consortium that includes Western Digital is offering 1.9 trillion yen ($17.4 billion) for Toshiba Corp.’s memory chip business, which the Japanese conglomerate is trying to sell to cover losses from its U.S. nuclear business, Reuters reported yesterday. Western Digital is set to offer 150 billion yen through convertible bonds and will not seek voting rights in the business. The consortium also includes U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co. as well as the state-backed Innovation Network Corp of Japan and Development Bank of Japan, all of which will offer 300 billion yen each for the chip business, the sources said. Under the proposal, Toshiba's lenders including Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp and Mizuho Bank would also extend around 700 billion yen in loans, they said. Other Japanese companies will also invest around 50 billion yen to ensure domestic firms hold a combined 60 percent stake, the sources said, adding that Toshiba itself would keep a 100 billion yen stake in the business.