Western Digital and Kioxia Said to be Considering Merging Flash Production Business

[TheLostSwede]

According to a report from Bloomberg, Western Digital and Kioxia are holding new talks about a potential merger of both companies' flash production businesses. The merger appears to be quite complex, as not only does it involve Western Digital spinning off its flash production business unit, which is then said to be merged with Kioxia, into what will be a publicly traded company in the US, but there will also be a second listing in Japan for the company.

Considering that Kioxia came out of Toshiba's DRAM and NAND flash manufacturing business, in which Western Digital was a partner until Toshiba divested its business into Kioxia. This caused quite some tension between the two companies, but Western Digital and Kioxia kept producing NAND flash in the shared facilities. The report by Bloomberg suggests that a management team from Western Digital will be running the combined company, which could potentially lead to future issues between the US and Japanese sides of the company. Time will tell if a merger will actually take place or not, as the two companies failed to come to an agreement in 2021, but it's possible that something has changed since then. Back in 2021, the merger was valued at US$20 billion plus.



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[Jack1n]

From my experience, Kioxia drives are of really bad quality. If this goes through, I am done with WD and will switch to Crucial.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I guess WD are moving in to finish the job.

 

[claes]

From my experience, Kioxia drives are of really bad quality. If this goes through, I am done with WD and will switch to Crucial.

Doesn’t WD use Kioxia flash already?

 

[ReallyBigMistake]

this party is getting crazy! Lets rock

If I remember the Japanese government sunk in like 600 million bucks into Kioxia a few years ago. I am sure they won't be happy

 

[trsttte]

Maybe it doesn't make much of a difference (from ~4.5 to 4 nand manufacturers - samsung, micron, wd/kioxia shared facility, sk hynix), but less competition is always bad

And yes, second hand integrators like Adata and etc. don't count.

 

[Chaitanya]

From my experience, Kioxia drives are of really bad quality. If this goes through, I am done with WD and will switch to Crucial.

WD/Sandisk already use Toshiba/Kioxia Nand(BiCS) with their custom controller. There are better reasons to ditch WD/Sandisk rather than this merger those being bait and switch of components along with too many confusing SKUs with wildly varying specs which are purposefully kept unclear.

 

[randomUser]

From my experience, Kioxia drives are of really bad quality. If this goes through, I am done with WD and will switch to Crucial.

My experience is the opposite. However, i only have experience with HDD and not flash.
When it comes to HDD purchase its definitely toshiba and never WD

 

[nguyenquan1]

My experience is the opposite. However, i only have experience with HDD and not flash.
When it comes to HDD purchase its definitely toshiba and never WD

you should try WD ultrastar HDD, the HGST's another name.

 

[Assimilator]

WD/Sandisk already use Toshiba/Kioxia Nand(BiCS) with their custom controller. There are better reasons to ditch WD/Sandisk rather than this merger those being bait and switch of components along with too many confusing SKUs with wildly varying specs which are purposefully kept unclear.

Yeah, I'd much rather Kioxia is the one running the show than WD.

 

[Wirko]

Maybe it doesn't make much of a difference (from ~4.5 to 4 nand manufacturers - samsung, micron, wd/kioxia shared facility, sk hynix), but less competition is always bad

And yes, second hand integrators like Adata and etc. don't count.

That 4.5 is (was) overly optimistic, WD never was an independent nand manufacturer.

 

[trsttte]

That 4.5 is (was) overly optimistic, WD never was an independent nand manufacturer.

Didn't they have their own production with the acquisition of SanDisk a couple years ago?

 

[Wirko]

Didn't they have their own production with the acquisition of SanDisk a couple years ago?

I'm not familiar with that part of history ... but look here:

SanDisk; What's the Story? - MyMemory Blog

Let's take a little trip down memory lane and see how SanDisk got to be where they are today, the masters of innovation in flash storage.

www.mymemory.co.uk

It says that SanDisk had NAND manufacturing joint venture with Toshiba since 1999. Toshiba took it over in 2002 while SanDisk continued making end products. It's not clear if SanDisk continued to be involved in the development of technology.

Whatever it may be, it's always the same cluster of companies: SanDisk, Toshiba, Kioxia and WD, and they never competed among themselves with flash products.

 

[Jack1n]

Doesn’t WD use Kioxia flash already?

Used Sandisk last time I checked and that is what I have in my SN550.

 

[claes]

Idk about your specific model but

Western Digital SN550 1 TB Specs

1 TB, TLC, PCIe 3.0 x4, M.2 2280

www.techpowerup.com

WD hadn’t used the Sandisk brand for awhile iirc, but please correct me. Don’t know why they “rebranded” Toshiba as Sandisk, maybe the db needs more info
(Sandisk is WD, don’t know what products actually contain WD/Sandisk nand though)