Western Digital buys Hitachi’s storage unit

Western Digital bought Hitachi’s storage unit
this week for US4.3bn, a strategic step that
gives Western Digital a foot in the enterprise
market.
The purchase gives Western Digital a full
stack of storage offerings, from consumer
to business, and puts it in competition with
the largest players in the storage market
including Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung and
Dell.
Hitachi will own 25m shares, or 10% of
Western Digital under the deal. Hitachi Global
Storage CEO Steve Milligan will report to
Western Digital CEO John Coyne.
Both companies will be merged by Q3 this
year.
“We believe this step will result in several
key benefits – enhanced R&D capabilities,
innovation and expansion of a rich product
portfolio, comprehensive market coverage
and scale that will enhance our cost
structure and ability to compete in a
dynamics marketplace,” Coyne said.
Western Digital is known for production of
hard drivers and solid state drives, with a
focus on the consumer market.
Hitachi Global Storage, however, has
previously been focussed on enterprise
needs.