Toshiba, Fujitsu HDD deal

Toshiba Corporation and Fujitsu Limited on Thursday today announced the terms of the definitive agreement, following the pair's memorandum of understanding completed in mid-February. Under the agreement, Fujitsu will transfer its hard disk drive (HDD) business to Toshiba, with a target completion date of July 1st.

A new company, Toshiba Storage Device Corporation (TSDC), will assume all of Fujitsu's HDD-related business and functions, with Fujitsu's manufacturing operations in the Philippines and Thailand being renamed to Toshiba Storage Devices Philippines (TSDP) and Toshiba Storage Devices Thailand (TSDT). At the same time, Yamagata Fujitsu Limited will become Toshiba Storage Device Yamagata Corporation (TSDY), with all three companies becoming wholly-owned subsidiaries of TSDC once the deal is completed.

Toshiba will then handle the sales and marketing of all HDD products, while design, research and development and production handled by TSDC. The majority of Fujitsu’s sales and marketing offices outside of Japan will be transferred to Toshiba’s overseas business operations. Toshiba will acquire an 80.1 percent stake in TSDC by July 1st, with Fujitsu holding 19.9 percent of shares until the end of December 2010. On January 1st, 2011, Toshiba will receive all shares of TSDC.

The business transfer will see about 800 employees in Japan and nearly 7,000 worldwide transfer over from Fujitsu to Toshiba. The deal is expected to be worth the equivalent of about $305 million.

TSDC will be one of the largest hard drive makers, competing against rivals like Hitachi and Seagate.

By Electronista Staff