Western Digital will acquire
Hitachi Global Storage
Technologies (Hitachi GST), a
subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. which
manufactures products and
solutions to storage (storage media). The transaction value in cash
and shares worth about 4.3
billion U.S. dollars. Each cash
transaction at 3.5 billion U.S.
dollars plus 25 million shares of
WD $ 750 million U.S. dollars, based on WD's closing stock price
of 30.01 U.S. dollars as of March
4, 2011. Hitachi, Ltd. will retain about 10
percent of Western Digital
shares outstanding after the
issuance of shares, and two
representatives from Hitachi will
be placed in the board of directors of WD. The transaction
was approved by the board of
directors of both companies and
is expected to be completed in
the 3rd quarter of calendar
year 2011, which still must meet various requirements in the
usual, including approval from
regulators. The combined company still uses
the name of Western Digital and
headquartered in Irvine,
California. John Coyne will remain
as chief executive officer of WD,
Leyden team as chief operating officer and Wolfgang Nickl as
chief financial officer. Steve
Milligan, president and chief
executive officer of Hitachi GST
will join the WD as the president
and responsible for John Coyne. "We believe that this step will
produce a number of benefits of
key-capabilities of R & D is
better, innovation and expanding
product portfolio is rich, market
reach a comprehensive and scale that will improve our cost
structure and ability to compete
in a dynamic market," said John
Coyne, president and chief
executive officer of WD in the
press release. Combined the two companies will
produce a storage company to a
customer focus, with significant
operating scale, strong global
talent and the industry's largest
product line is supported by a very rich technology portfolio. Meanwhile, Hitachi will be more
focus on Social Innovation
Business, including information
and telecommunications systems,
power systems, environmental
systems, industrial and transportation, and social and
urban systems, as well as
advanced materials and various
primary devices that support
them.