Western Digital announces that it will divest its flash business and implement it in the second half of 2024

According to CTOnews.com on October 31, Western Digital bought famous flash memory company SanDisk for $19 billion in cash and stock transactions in 2015. Today, however, Western Digital & Johnson announced a completely opposite decision to spin off its flash memory business into an independent company.

Western Digital said in a press release:

After completing the strategic evaluation, after comprehensively considering various options, Western Digital believes that in order to achieve its maximum value, the best and most feasible option is to spin off its flash business. To this end, Western Digital believes that the timing of implementing the independent separation strategy is favorable and can create value for shareholders when the industry situation improves.

Western Digital & Johnson's CEO, David Goeckeler, said in a press release that the company had established "separate flash and HDD products business units and separation of operating capabilities" in the past few years. He believes that the new plan will "further enable every company to achieve long-term success in the next few years".

CTOnews.com noted that the plan to spin off Western Digital & Johnson's flash memory and HDD businesses still needs to be approved by the board of directors, as well as other conditions, such as the availability of financing and the manner in which the spin-off structure is tax exempt. Currently, the divestiture plan is expected to be implemented in the second half of 2024.

Western Digital & Johnson had recently held merger talks with another flash memory company, Japan's Kioxia. However, the talks stalled last week after SK Hynix, one of Kioxia's investors, opposed the merger, and Western Digital & Johnson did not mention deal talks with Kioxia in today's press release or in a financial conference call, Reuters reported.