Western Digital has agreed to acquire rival storage and memory supplier SanDisk in a deal valued at about $19 billion.
The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.
With the transaction, Western Digital will double its addressable market and expand its participation in higher-growth segments, the company said.
The deal also enables Western Digital to vertically integrate into the NAND market, securing long-term access to solid-state technology at lower cost through the maintenance of SanDisk’s 15-year joint venture with Toshiba, which provides a stable NAND supply at scale through a time-tested business model.
The two companies produce complementary product lines, including hard disk drives, solid-state drives, Cloud data center storage solutions and flash storage solutions.
Both companies have strong R&D and engineering capabilities with more than 15,000 combined patents issued or pending worldwide.
Milligan will continue to serve as CEO of the combined company, and the company will remain headquartered in Irvine, Calif. Upon closing, SanDisk CE Sanjay Mehrotra is expected to join the Western Digital board of directors.
The transaction will be financed by a mix of cash, new debt financing and Western Digital stock. It is subject to approval by SanDisk shareholders and is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2016.
