Just after yesterday's news regarding Western Digital's talks to buy memory chip maker, SanDisk, the acquisition has been announced. WD will be taking over SanDisk for $19 billion, or $86.50 per share. The news was confirmed by Western Digital itself in a hefty press release posted online today. This acquisition is the company's next step in to the storage solutions market on a much bigger scale.
SanDisk is the third largest manufacturer of flash memory worldwide, while Western Digital is widely known for its hard drives. Rumours of the acquisition popped up earlier this week, with a report stating that ‘advanced talks' were happening right now and a deal could be reached by the end of this week.
While the deal is announced, it still needs to be looked at by several official parties before going ahead, including the FTC since both companies have Headquarters in California, the trade commission will judge whether or not the deal is anti-competitive.
Right now, Western Digital expects the acquisition to complete by the third quarter of next year.
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KitGuru Says: This is a pretty huge acquisition for Western Digital, especially with SanDisk's strong place in the flash memory market.
Smart move. Means if SSD take over from standard HDDs then they won’t be a redundant company.