Fujitsu sells out to Toshiba
Fujitsu has agreed to sell its hard disk drive (HDD) business to Toshiba, according to reports.
Ranked number six worldwide by iSuppli, Fujitsu's HDD business is loss-making, and Western Digital (number 2) was a rumoured buyer before Toshiba emerged. The global HDD industry is seeing a contraction in demand due to the deepening recession. Both Seagate (number one) and Western Digital have announced staff cuts and other cost-saving measures.
Exactly what Toshiba (number five) is buying is unclear, but read/write head manufacturing is not included. Fujitsu has announced that its HDD head manufacturing operation at Nagano, Japan will terminate. The plant will revert to only making printed circuit boards for servers and telecoms kit, which it currently does alongside the read/write heads, after March 31.
