The old man CmdrTaco over at Slashdot has a notion that Toshiba’s final dropping of HD DVD was due to a little old-fashioned backscratching. Sony is selling parts of some of the chip plants it owns in Japan to Toshiba, giving Tosh 60% interests in an RSX and a Cell chip plants. This is money in Toshiba’s pocket.

It’s not a direct kickback, but it would be sort of a carrot as opposed to the stick, and dropping HD DVD was perhaps part of the overall negotiation. Sony flexed its muscles, Toshiba caved in.

Toshiba paid off to drop HD-DVD? [Slashdot]