Toshiba pulls out the cheque book for Fujitsu's HDD division.
Toshiba is looking set to scoop up Fujitsu’s entire hard drive manufacturing division for a cool estimated sum of US$448.8 million. This move would bolster its 2.5-inch (and below) hard drive business by no insignificant amount – enough, in fact, that could push Toshiba into the realm of the world’s largest notebook hard drive supplier, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Fujitsu has been looking to sell off its hard drive division as it’s currently just a giant money sink. A larger company buying it out, however, would benefit from the increased manufacturing capacity. Western Digital was the last company to offer to buy the division, however, Fujitsu refused, as it allegedly wouldn’t promise not to immediately lay off workers.
Nonetheless, the timing for this move seems somewhat unusual. Not only are many corporations trying to cut costs wherever possible – no thanks to the current global economic ka-splat – but it’s only a matter of time before solid-state drives (SSDs) dominate pretty much all notebook markets. SSDs are falling in price and two driving motivators for such a trend shift are longer battery lives thanks to no more mechanical parts and an almost incomparable boost in drive durability.
It boggles the mind, but perhaps Fujitsu has something up its sleeve in the solid-state drive department that Toshiba wants and of which we’re unaware.
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