According to a report from the Nikkei Business Daily newspaper, Fujitsu is in talks to sell its money-losing hard drive business to Western Digital. The two companies are said to be in the latter stage of negotiations over the deal and hope to reach an agreement before the end of this year.
The deal would see Fujitsu sell all of its plants - including those in Japan, Thailand, and the Philippines - for 70 billion yen to 100 billion yen (approximately $660 million to $944 million). This would be one of the largest business unit sell-offs for a Japanese electronics company, one that would raise Western Digital's market share to almost the same as market leader Seagate.
The news come at a time when the hard disk drive industry facing falling prices and competition from flash-based solid state drives, particularly in ultra-portable notebooks and the enterprise market.