Sources say Western Digital and the armoured Man reach a merger agreement as soon as this month.

Thanks to CTOnews.com netizen Alejandro86 for the clue delivery! According to CTOnews.com news on October 14, according to sources, Mailxia Holdings will reach a merger agreement with Western Digital as soon as this month. If the two sides realize the merger, then its semiconductor memory business will reach the largest scale in the world.

Western Digital bought solid-state storage maker SanDisk for $19 billion in 2016 and gained control of a joint venture with Mailixia (formerly Toshiba). Western Digital is currently preparing for a new phase of transformation, with plans to sell its storage business to Armor.

After careful negotiations, the two companies will form a new holding company after the merger, Western Digital will retain 50.1 per cent of its assets and the remaining 49.9 per cent will be owned by the armor after exchanging the number of shares required by the new company, according to Nikkei Asia Review.

The president of the armor manages the business, and the Japanese representative company will occupy most of the seats on the board of directors. The new company will be registered in the United States, but will be headquartered in Japan, and its shares will be listed on the United States and Tokyo stock exchanges.

Last year, Western Digital and armour together controlled 32 per cent of the flash market, lagging behind leader Samsung Electronics with 34 per cent.

According to British research firm Omdia, if merged, the global market share in the NAND sector by value was 35.4% as of the end of March this year, surpassing South Korea's Samsung Electronics (34.3%) to become the world's number one.

Negotiations are under way with potential creditors, including major Japanese banks, that could provide between $10 billion and $12.7 billion.

In order to promote the merger, the three major banks, including the Bank of Mitsubishi UFJ and the Japan Policy Investment Bank, are considering providing about 1.9 trillion yen (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 92.91 billion yuan), and plan to issue a "credit certificate" promising financing as soon as the 20th of this month. Armour Holdings and Xisu will finalize the details of the merger agreement after receiving financial guarantees.