Western Digital struck a deal late Tuesday to divest some of its 3.5-inch desktop hard drive assets to Toshiba. The pact would see WD buy Toshiba’s storage group in Thailand, as well as give away other elements, as a condition of WD’s buyout of Hitachi’s storage group. By the completion of the deal, Toshiba could make desktop 3.5-inch hard drives for home users, and it could improve its ability to make specialized drives for pro uses.
Regulators approving the handoff to Toshiba will depend on the Hitachi deal being approved. The Hitachi acquisition was made public March of last year.
The purchase of the Hitachi division, worth $4.3 billion, was made primarily to help WD scale larger and fend off Seagate. Hitachi’s section would also fill out more of WD’s range, by improving its focuses on mobile and embedded drives.
