European Commission Clears Western Digital to Acquire SanDisk

Both consumers and retailers will not be negatively impacted by Western Digital’s acquisition of SanDisk. This is the conclusion of the European Commission after an investigation. The Commission thereby clears the acquisition, which involves a total of $19 billion.

Despite the fact that the two companies jointly have a relatively large market share, the acquisition will not raise competition concerns, the European Commission writes. According to the EC, the activities of the two companies only overlap in the field of flash storage for the enterprise market. The Commission further notes that there are several strong players active in the market segments where SanDisk and Western Digital operate and specifically mentions Intel, Toshiba, Micron and Samsung. These parties could continue to offer sufficient competition after the takeover.

In October 2015, the companies launched the acquisition. Western Digital will acquire all outstanding shares of SanDisk. According to the companies, WD and SanDisk’s product portfolios align. In addition to making hard drives, WD is mainly active in the cloud storage market. SanDisk is a major player in the market for products that use flash memory, such as SD cards and SSDs. WD and SanDisk expect the acquisition to close in the third quarter of 2016.