Toshiba in talks to buy Fujitsu hard drive ops

Toshiba on Wednesday revealed (reg. required) that talks are currently underway to investigate buying Fujitsu's hard drive business in a deal estimated to be worth roughly $448.8 million. No details have been revealed, but Fujitsu itself has acknowledged the talks and says that Toshiba is one of "several" candidates for a possible deal, which in the past have also included Western Digital.

Fujitsu is said eager to strike a deal as a solution to offloading the storage business, which is poised to lose as much as $112 million when the company's latest fiscal year is over.

An acquisition would give Toshiba a lead in 2.5-inch notebook hard drives, as both companies are already two of the largest in the field. The two have little to no influence over desktop-sized, 3.5-inch hard drives, which are often led by Hitachi, Seagate and Western Digital.

Filed under: industry, upgrades/storage
Other story tags: Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Western Digital, Seagate