Storage vendor Western Digital has announced it has acquired SanDisk in a deal worth around $19 billion.
The offer, announced Wednesday, pegs SanDisk shares at $86.50 each, 15 per cent higher than the company’s closing price of the previous day.
Despite industry-wide shifts toward flash memory, SanDisk’s revenues have slowed recently, and the flash memory maker had been rumoured to be looking for a buyer, TechCrunch reported.
Meanwhile, Western Digital, whose business largely relies on selling hard disk drives, could also be looking to grow into the flash movement.
WD, along with Seagate, are two of the largest hard disk drive manufacturers in the world while SanDisk is said to be the third-largest flash memory maker.
“The combination is the next step in the transformation of Western Digital into a storage solutions company with global scale, extensive product and technology assets, and deep expertise in non-volatile memory (NVM),” Western Digital said in a statement. “The combination also enables Western Digital to vertically integrate into NAND, securing long-term access to solid state technology at lower cost.”