JCN Network: Toshiba Corp. will buy Fujitsu Ltd.’s unprofitable computer-storage drive business to help narrow its gap with industry leader Seagate Technology in the US$32.6 billion market.
Toshiba aims to buy 80 percent of the business by the quarter ending June 30 and eventually acquire full ownership.
Revenue at the hard-disk drive business will rise to about 600 billion yen (US$6.5 billion) in the year ending March 2013. The companies said they have yet to agree on a price, estimated by Deutsche Bank Group AG to be hundreds of billions of yen.
The combination would almost double Toshiba’s market share in hard-disk drives to about 16 percent, rivaling Hitachi’s rank as the industry’s third-largest producer.
Toshiba, the industry’s fourth-ranked producer, said the Fujitsu business will help raise its market share to 20 percent by 2015. The sale allows Fujitsu to shed a business that’s been unprofitable since 2007 to focus on providing computer services.
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