Rumor: Did Toshiba 'Cell' Out HD DVD?

Get your tin foil hats on, this is one of those kinds of rumors.  As always we remind you to take all rumors with a grain of salt.

We reported in the past that Sony was going to offload their Cell production and that Toshiba was a rumored buyer, but the deal seemed to be in limbo for several weeks.  Then major retailers and studios started pulling the plug on HD DVD without a whole lot of explanation.

A few more weeks go by and Toshiba officially canned their disc format and Sony sets a price on the Cell operation: $835 million.  It's hard not to wonder if there is more here than meets the eye.  It seems that both companies got something they wanted, but the short-term gains seem to be in Sony's favor:

“Shares in Sony were up 2.8 percent at 5,150 yen in afternoon trade while Toshiba fell 2.8 percent to 801 yen. The Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index was down 2.1 percent.”
Tags:  HD, Toshiba, DVD, cell, HD DVD, Rumor, OS, oshiba, TOS, CEL, id