Western Digital Sells HDD Manufacturing to Toshiba

News
By Douglas Perry
published

Western Digital (WD) and Toshiba announced that the two companies have reached an agreement under which WD will sell certain 3.5-inch manufacturing and distribution assets.

WD is required to drop specific assets to receive permission to finalize the acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST). The sale will allow Toshiba tomanufacture and sell 3.5-inch hard drives for desktop and consumer electronics applications and will help Toshiba to expand its near-line HDD business.

As part of the deal, WD will take over TSDT Thailand, Toshiba's Thailand-based HDD production facilities. According to WD, TSDT manufactured hard drives, but was severely impacted by the Thailand flood and has not yet resumed production. Once the manufacturing capability is restored, WD intends to integrate TSDT's property, facilities and employees in Thailand into its Thailand operations. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

According to IHS iSuppli, Western Digital shipped about 28.5 million hard drives in Q4 of 2011, significantly down from 57.8 million in Q3 2011. Including Hitachi GST's shipments the company reached 45.7 million drives, which is still behind Seagate (excluding Samsung), which won the quarter with 46.9 million drives.

Douglas Perry
24 Comments Comment from the forums
  • scook9
    I do not normally complain about this....but the grammar was atrocious in this article....editors need to read it more than once before hitting publish....
    Reply
  • Lord Captivus
    Is this good or bad news for consumers?
    Toshiba is going to prioritize their own computers, so if you like Toshiba I’m guessing its good news...mmm...maybe I should give back my business degree!
    Reply
  • JamesSneed
    wtf? The title is so misleading. Let me fix this for you.

    "Western Digital to sell some equipment to Toshiba"

    EDIT: Here is the real scoop which is exactly opisite of what the title makes it sound like.


    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/toshiba-to-sell-thai-hdd-unit-to-western-digital-2012-02-28

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/28/westerndigital-toshiba-idUSL4E8DS9II20120228
    Reply
  • 4745454b
    Bad for us. Sounds like we are losing another hdd manufacturer.
    Reply
  • the_crippler
    Seems to be a constant back-and-forth between Seagate and WD...when one's good, the other is a risky purchase. Now that WD will have that Toshiba "quality," it looks like Seagate will be back to being the good bet.
    Reply
  • JohnnyLucky
    It has reached the point where I am confused about all of the acquisitions and trades.
    Reply
  • drwho1
    All I really want to hear is:

    . Prices are finally back to Earthly Level
    . HDD Manufactures have finally decided to stop the price gouge
    . 5TB are now available for $100 dollars with NO limit per purchase.

    Guess I will still have to keep waiting for a few years. :(
    Reply
  • Marcus52
    scook9I do not normally complain about this....but the grammar was atrocious in this article....editors need to read it more than once before hitting publish....
    There were a couple of typo errors - which shouldn't have made it through - and the title was misleading, but it is a vast overstatement to say the grammar was "atrocious".
    Reply
  • DRosencraft
    Alright, let me attempt to explain this for everyone. Western DIgital bought out Hitachi. Hitachi wasn't doing so hot, and Western Digital saw an opportunity to both eliminate a competitor and to take in some manufacturing capacity. However, part of the deal for WD taking over Hitachi is that they have to unload some part of thier assets in the interest of competition. Toshiba at the same time wants to get into the desktop and enterprise HDD market and need some of that tech. So, in exchange for giving WD even more manufacturing capacity (the Thailand facilities) Toshiba gets from WD the tech to build those 3.5" drives.

    What does that mean for us consumers? Really, it probably works out as an even swap. We lost a desktop HDD maker with Hitachi getting bought out, but now Toshiba is going to start making desktop HDDs. There is room to be sceptical thoguh.

    WD basically increased manufacturing capacity in the exact same area that got washed out last year, factories that were flooded in last year's floods. Ideally I woiuld think they would have been looking to move some operations somewhere else. If they get heavy rains again this year, then basically this new factory goes to waste.

    On the other side, Toshiba hasn't had experience making 3.5" drives. Their 2.5" drives are good, but you'd be surprised how a company can mess up somethig that should be as simple as moving from 2.5" to 3.5". The fact that they were looking to buy the capability rather than developing it themselves should tell you something. They could have a number of different problems (quality, performance, reliability).
    Reply
  • velocityg4
    The big disappointment to me is Hitachi selling out to WD. Hitachi drives are the most reliable I have ever owned. They also are fast and run cool to the touch. Western Digital is decent but I suppose this is the end of the best hard drive manufacturer. Once can only hope WD makes use of some Hitachi processes and engineers to make their drives run cooler and more reliably.

    At least it wasn't to Samsung. Every Samsung I have ever owned ran piping hot (hot enough to cause burns if held too long). They have all failed within a few months. I don't even know how they stay in the hard drive business.
    Reply