LITE-ON Technology announced today its Board has approved the statutory spin-off and transfer of the company’s Solid State Drives (SSD) Business to Toshiba Memory Holdings Corporation (TMCHD) through a share purchase transaction.

The transaction involves the transfer of LITE-ON SSD business’s operations and assets, including inventories, equipment, personnel, intellectual properties, technologies and client and supplier relationships. The transaction value is tentatively set as US$165mm, to be fully paid in cash.

Warren Chen, LITE-ON Vice Chairman and Group CEO, indicated that with continued strong tailwind for SSD industry driven by surging data storage demand, LITE-ON believes the transaction will be a win-win situation to both the SSD Business and TMCHD, underpinned by vertical integrations and increased scale of business.

“LITE-ON’s Solid State Drive business is a natural and strategic fit with Toshiba Memory and expands our focus in the SSD industry,” said Nobuo Hayasaka, acting President and CEO of Toshiba Memory Holding Corporation. “This is an exciting acquisition for us, as it positions us to meet the projected growth in demand for SSDs in PCs and data centers being driven by the increased use of cloud services.”

The SSD business started as a business unit under LITE-ON in 1995. It started PC SSD business in 2008 and cloud data center SSD development in 2014, and has become a leading developer and manufacturer of customized ready-to-use SSD for both enterprise and client PC applications with highly recognized customer base throughout America, Europe and Asia.

Moving forwards, LITE-ON will continue to focus on development of core businesses including transformation towards cloud computing, LED lightning, automotive electronics and industrial automation.

The transfer will proceed to obtain the relevant approvals as required, with an estimated completion by April, 2020.