SanDisk Gets USD19 Billion-Dollar Acquisition Offer From Western Digital

This Wednesday, SanDisk received an offer to buy the company for a whopping USD19 billion dollars. Hard-disk drive maker Western Digital Corp announced that the offer is at USD86.50 per share and stock for each share held. The New York Times said the offer represented a 15 percent premium to the memory chip maker’s closing price on Tuesday. 

In a press release, Western Digital chief executive Stephen D. Milligan said, “This transformational acquisition aligns with our long-term strategy to be an innovative leader in the storage industry by providing compelling, high-quality products with leading technology.” 

Bloomberg said the acquisition will have Western Digital access SanDisk’s growing memory chip market. As a maker of older hard disk drives, it made sense to Western Digital to make capital investments on assets that could bring in new market opportunities. 

Western Digital confided to Reuters that even strategic partner Toshiba Corp is supportive of the acquisition. Toshiba has an existing intellectual property-sharing joint venture with SanDisk.