Western Digital completes SanDisk acquisition despite investor withdrawal

Western Digital has completed its acquisition of SanDisk. That takeover came into question when a Chinese investor withdrew. WD pays about sixteen billion dollars for the maker of, among other things, memory cards.

The integration of both companies will begin immediately, WD says. The integration is expected to take approximately two years. The companies, with a joint 74,000 employees, have not yet said anything about possible layoffs due to, for example, double positions. The takeover came into question when investor Unisplendour withdrew. As a result, both companies had to renegotiate some terms for the acquisition and the acquisition amount is lower than the previously estimated $19 billion.

WD will continue to operate SanDisk as a separate brand within the group, as it has previously done with HGST. Through the acquisition, WD wants to grow in the field of storage. In addition to making hard drives, the manufacturer 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. The press release highlights that the companies together own more than 15,000 patents.

The SanDisk and Toshiba joint venture will remain in place after the acquisition. The companies have been working together for fifteen years. This year they started making 48-layer 3D Nand memory, which should go into mass production next year. Steve Milligan, CEO of WD, will lead the combined company.