Leading hard disk maker Western Digital will be acquiring Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST)--the hard disk drive division of Hitachi--in a deal worth $4.3 billion. The move will effectively give Western Digital 49 percent of HDD market share, pulling it further ahead of the second-seeded Seagate. In a joint statement, both companies said that the move will offer "significant operating scale, strong global talent, and the industry's broadest product lineup backed by a rich technology portfolio."

Beyond increase in market share that Western Digital will command, the company stands to also gain from intellectual property belonging to Hitachi GST, as well as increased manufacturing efficiencies. At the moment, Hitachi GST manufactures most of its drives in China while Western Digital makes the bulk of its drives in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Finally, the consolidation is also expected to help stabilize prices and maintain profitability in the highly competitive industry where shipments of HDD are estimated to have declined by 4 percent in the first quarter.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Financial Times
- check out this article at CNET News 
- check out this article at Computerworld

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