Western Digital Prepares to Split

[AGTDenton]

Almost a year in the making the HDD and flash portions of WD are splitting into 2 seperate companies.
Unless something has changed, there will be no parent, and the new companies will be independent.

https://www.webpronews.com/western-d...two-companies/

https://www.westerndigital.com/en-gb...any-separation

[Jonj1611]

Guess it makes sense in the long run. I guess?

[[GSV]Trig]

Erm, did WD not buy a flash company not that long ago, and merge it into WD, are they now not just undoing that merge then by the sounds of it?

[Output]

Erm, did WD not buy a flash company not that long ago, and merge it into WD, are they now not just undoing that merge then by the sounds of it?

According to Wikipedia, WD bought SanDisk in 2016.

I'd imagine that's the name they'll be using for the flash side again, and it wouldn't be a problem as they've continued using the name on various flash products since then anyway.

[[GSV]Trig]

2016, ok, so a bit longer ago than I though...

[AGTDenton]

I think Covid skewed our reality of time. I still think of 2016 as only a few years ago!

[Saracen999]

Guess it makes sense in the long run. I guess?

Maybe? I'm not so sure, though.
I get why they might brand-split, and manufacturing facilities certainly don't have much in common BUT .... there's an awful lot of companies that make much more thanHDs and SSDs, without splitting. Samsuny, Sony, LG and a load more, for astart.

I don't see a need to ssplit, just because HDs and SSDs have different paths ... abd uses. Maybe something else is behind it???

[DDY]

I think the split might be to do with growth.

Growth numbers attract investment, growth makes shareholders happy.

SSD growth might be significantly out-pacing HDD growth.

WD’s HDD business is rather large, therefore has a proportionately large impact on the company’s overall growth figures.

Unlike other tech companies, WD isn’t particularly diverse, so the SSDs might represent a significant proportion of the company.

[Saracen999]

That certainly seems plausible Right or not? I have no clue.

[AGTDenton]

From what I understand, the HDD side of the business will maintain the Western Digital name.
Maybe the SSD side could adopt Eastern Digital...

[ik9000]

is there a future for HDD? Is this a "selling off the diesel engine business to focus on steam power" kind of move?

[Output]

I'd like to think that HDD is still going to be important for plenty of time yet, given the cheaper pricing for higher capacity.

[DanceswithUnix]

I'd like to think that HDD is still going to be important for plenty of time yet, given the cheaper pricing for higher capacity.

That probably equates to lower margins.

HDD is already a niche product, albeit a large niche. It only really wins on initial purchase cost per TB. SSDs are better at the TB per rack figure as well as power requirements and power makes the lifetime cost of SSD look much improved.