
Western Digital Close To SanDisk Acquisition
Bloomberg says that memory chipmaker SanDisk is "in advanced talks" to sell itself to hard disk drive maker Western Digital.
Last week's report claimed that SanDisk had selected an investment bank to organize the disposal of its assets with Micron Technology, Western Digital, and Tsinghua Unigroup showing an interest in the sale.
Any deal with SanDisk will require a sign off from Toshiba. SanDisk uses Toshiba's foundries to make its chips and the two have an important intellectual property-sharing joint venture.
Samsung, the world's largest memory maker, was also cited as a potential candidate for the buyout, although the the company was said to have already reached the conclusion that such a deal would not generate profits.
Samsung accounts for around 40 percent of the solid state drive (SSD) market, and it is in an advantageous position in terms of productivity and product performance, owing to its use of 3D NAND and triple-level cell (TLC) technology.
Samsung had previously tried to buy Sandisk without success.