This is another story which is still at the rumour stage I'm afraid, but some sources are claiming that Hitachi, Toshiba and Fujitsu could be planning to form a new company dedicated to producing hard drives and storage systems. The deal would be instead of Hitachi selling its struggling hard drive division to a private equity firm, and comes following unsuccessful talks with Silver Lake, the company responsible for turning around Seagate's fortunes years ago. It is thought that Hitachi is not particularly keen on selling part of its company to 'outsiders' such as Silver Lake for cultural reasons, and would be more trusting of other Japanese companies such as Toshiba and Fujitsu. Any deal is expected to be reached by April 1st, which represents the start of the business year in Japan.