[TR] WD buys Sandisk

[VirtualLarry]

http://techreport.com/news/29223/western-digital-buys-sandisk-for-19-billion

 

[mikeymikec]

I wonder if WD was thinking of buying OCZ but Toshiba got there first. Or perhaps they waited for Toshiba to make something of it.

 

[MongGrel]

Globalization marches on.

 

[MongGrel]

NM, redacted.

 

[PliotronX]

I never looked into it, was WD in the SSD game before this acquisition? I can't say I'm disappointed here because I like both of their products.

 

[Cerb]

That's all I got...

 

[Elixer]

This makes sense for WD, but, not sure how it makes sense for Sandisk.
Maybe we will now see black, green, purple, and blue SSDs!

 

[mikeymikec]

This makes sense for WD, but, not sure how it makes sense for Sandisk.

Money.

'nuff said.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I believe that Sandisk had a joint venture with Toshiba for flash memory fabs, so this gives WD access to a source of flash memory, without having to just buy it on the merchant market. Which, in the era of increasingly vertically-integrated SSD companies, this is important.

However, Sandisk doesn't design controllers, so I wonder if they will still be buying their controllers off of the likes of Marvell and SMI?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I believe that Sandisk had a joint venture with Toshiba for flash memory fabs, so this gives WD access to a source of flash memory, without having to just buy it on the merchant market. Which, in the era of increasingly vertically-integrated SSD companies, this is important.

However, Sandisk doesn't design controllers, so I wonder if they will still be buying their controllers off of the likes of Marvell and SMI?

Probably. My bet is they bought Sandisk to get more into the Enterprise SSD market, not the consumer business. Most storage companies are going to want, IMO, to purchase all of their parts from a single OEM, and spending a bunch of money to get into the low-margin consumer SSD business isn't very sensible, IMHO.

"Because that's where the money is."

 

[Cerb]

However, Sandisk doesn't design controllers, so I wonder if they will still be buying their controllers off of the likes of Marvell and SMI?

Sandisk does design controllers. They just haven't made any high performance mainstream SSD ones, to date.

 

[imported_ats]

Probably. My bet is they bought Sandisk to get more into the Enterprise SSD market, not the consumer business. Most storage companies are going to want, IMO, to purchase all of their parts from a single OEM, and spending a bunch of money to get into the low-margin consumer SSD business isn't very sensible, IMHO.

"Because that's where the money is."

WD already owns HGST which has some of the best enterprise drives on the market including the SSD800MH.B (pretty much a gold standard in SAS SSDs) and the SN100 NVMe SSD. It in unlikely they purchased Sandisk to get into the enterprise space, cause they are already there. Much more likely is that they purchased Sandisk to diversify with the wealth of consumer product lines that Sandisk has and to secure a first party supply of solid state memory chips going forward.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Sandisk to diversify with the wealth of consumer product lines that Sandisk has and to secure a first party supply of solid state memory chips going forward.

How much of the NAND mfg JV with Toshiba does SanDisk own?

 

[imported_ats]

How much of the NAND mfg JV with Toshiba does SanDisk own?

AFAICT, its generally 50/50 on a per fab basis. There are times that it has shifted somewhat depending on the financial needs of the two companies. For instance, there was a period where Sandisk needed some cash infusion where Toshiba supplied the money/took over equipment leases where the production/ownership obviously shifted but that was ~10 yrs ago. This isn't that unsimilar to the past shifts in the Micron/Intel JV where ownership shifted to 25%/75% in Micron's favor at one point(basically Intel didn't need all the capacity they had and Micron wanted more capacity, both still maintained joint R&D but shifted capital expenditure ratios). All recent fabs seems to be 50/50. They do joint flash R&D and capital expenditures like with their new 3D NAND fab.

 

[bononos]

Would there be a problem with Toshiba also being a player in the mass consumer market with its OCZ brand?

 

[Cerb]

Would there be a problem with Toshiba also being a player in the mass consumer market with its OCZ brand?

Maybe, but there's also Intel and Micron (Crucial), already, so that will be let slide.

 

[imported_ats]

Would there be a problem with Toshiba also being a player in the mass consumer market with its OCZ brand?

Why would it? Each has their allocation from the fabs to do with as they please. They can use it for a captive brand or sell it on the open market.

And there is already an existing example of this relationship with Intel/Micron. They both have their allocations and both compete head to head in the SSD markets.

 

[Charlie98]

This makes sense for WD, but, not sure how it makes sense for Sandisk.
Maybe we will now see black, green, purple, and blue SSDs!

I've often wondered why WD has waited so long to get into the SSD (consumer) market... part of me thinks they have missed the boat, but they will always have that tremendous name recognition, so I guess it would be something to see.

They are going to have to come up with some more colors for the SSDs...

 

[PliotronX]

I've often wondered why WD has waited so long to get into the SSD (consumer) market... part of me thinks they have missed the boat, but they will always have that tremendous name recognition, so I guess it would be something to see.

They are going to have to come up with some more colors for the SSDs...

Waitin' for the mauve line

 

[Cerb]

I've often wondered why WD has waited so long to get into the SSD (consumer) market... part of me thinks they have missed the boat, but they will always have that tremendous name recognition, so I guess it would be something to see.

They are going to have to come up with some more colors for the SSDs...

They tried a couple times, and didn't really get anywhere. They can't ride in on their brand name, without spinning platters.

 

[BFG10K]

I've often wondered why WD has waited so long to get into the SSD (consumer) market... part of me thinks they have missed the boat, but they will always have that tremendous name recognition, so I guess it would be something to see.

They had plenty of money to buy Sandisk. Where did that money come from? Overwhelmingly from mechanical HDD sales.

Contrary to the fantasy spun by some, HDDs aren't going to cease being profitable or viable any time soon.