TOKYO — Toshiba’s long meandering sale of its computer memory business took another turn Wednesday, as the Japanese nuclear and electronics company’s announcement of a deal with a consortium was immediately met with opposition from U.S. joint venture partner Western Digital.

Toshiba needs the sale of its lucrative NAND flash-memory SanDisk joint venture to survive. But Western Digital has begun legal action, opposing the sale to anyone else.

Toshiba sank into the red for the fiscal year through March. Its money-losing nuclear business in the U.S., Westinghouse Electric, filed for bankruptcy protection in March.

In the latest move, Toshiba said it entered a memorandum of understanding with Bain Capital Private Equity, which leads the consortium that also includes South Korea’s SK Hynix, and hoped to enter a final decision by the end of this month.

But Western Digital protested within hours of the announcement.

Toshiba said it was talking with two other bidders — Western Digital’s consortium and another that includes Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn, of Taiwan. Bain has now come up with a new proposal, it said, while noting other negotiations were also ongoing.

Toshiba had said in June its preferred bidder was the Bain consortium.