Toshiba interested in buying Fujitsu HDD unit

A Toshiba executive on Thursday said the Japanese electronics company would consider purchasing Fujitsu’s hard-disk drive unit if Fujitsu approached Toshiba, says a Friday WSJ report. The news comes after last month’s rumored bid by Toshiba to acquire flash-memory maker SanDisk, in an attempt to stop its sale to competitor Samsung, which Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida denied at an industry event, according to the same report. Nishida feels the current relations between Toshiba and SanDisk are fine.

With Fujitsu expected to break even or post a loss in its hard-disk drive operations for the current fiscal year, at least on industry analyst in Japan believe the merger would be beneficial, as it would allow both companies to save overhead costs by merging their operations. Fujitsu failed to comment on any possible ties with Toshiba.

Toshiba hasn't disclosed the financial numbers for its hard disk drive business, but analysts estimate 10 billion yen (about $95 million) in operating profit and 360 billion (about $3.4 billion) yen in revenue for the 2008 fiscal year.

Filed under: industry
Other story tags: Samsung, Toshiba, SanDisk, Fujitsu