Western Digital Acquiring SSD Maker sTec Inc.
Western Digital has offered to acquire sTec Inc. for around $340 million USD.
Western Digital announced on Monday plans to acquire SSD maker sTec, Inc. for approximately $340 million in cash, or $6.85 per share. The company said sTec would be merged into the company's HGST division, and not interfere with its current commitment with Intel to jointly develop and deliver current and future SAS-based SSD products.
"sTec has strong engineering talent and intellectual property that will complement HGST technical expertise and capabilities," the company said. "HGST will continue to support existing sTec products and collaborate with its customers to understand their future requirements."
sTec's board of directors unanimously approved the merger agreement based on the unanimous recommendation of a special committee of independent directors of the board. However, the decision to be bought out by Western Digital now falls on its shareholders who are scheduled to conduct a meeting regarding the offered price and the merger itself.
"The directors and executive officers of sTec have entered into separate voting agreements under which they have agreed, subject to certain exceptions, to vote their respective shares in favor of the proposed transaction," the company said. "Wells Fargo Securities, LLC has acted as the financial advisor to Western Digital and BofA Merrill Lynch has acted as the financial advisor to sTec in connection with this transaction."
Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Western Digital, said this acquisition is one more building block in its strategy to capitalize on the dramatic changes within the storage industry by investing in SSDs and other high-growth storage products. Even more, SSD storage in the enterprise sector will play an increasingly strategic role in WD's future.
Closing of the acquisition, which is subject to customary conditions, is expected to occur in the third or fourth calendar quarter of 2013, the company said.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
-
crABtoad Fake edit: They *would*. Where are the post controls on this website? Is this the 90s?Reply -
crABtoad Fake edit: They *would*. Where are the post controls on this website? Is this the 90s?Reply -
warmon6 The button at the end of the "There are 4 Comments." will lead you to the forums that you can edit your comment.Reply
Although you'll have to give your edits a bit of time to appear here. While the forums will show the change asap, the article comments take a while to change. -
chomlee I have owned STEC stock for the last 2-3 years. Unfortunately, they have not done well in the last year and I think WD saw this as a way to buy them on the cheap. At one point the stock was in the upper 20s and over the last year it continuously went down. I think at one point it was selling for $3.80. $6.85 is a nice jump for the stock holders but unfortunately not nerely enough to get even close to what it was a couple of years ago. I was thinking of doubling down when they where at $3.80 like I did when netflix was way down. Thats why hindsite is always 20/20 I guess.Reply