© Reuters Western Digital (WDC) jumps on restarted merger talks with Japan’s Kioxia
By Investing.com Staff
Shares of Western Digital (NASDAQ:) rose over 6% in pre-open trading Thursday following reports from Bloomberg News the company has restarted merger talks with Japan’s Kioxia Holdings.
While the structure of the deal remains in flux, the parties are said to be discussing merging into one publicly traded company, it was added.
Talks are in the early stages and could end without an agreement, it was cautioned.
The two parties were in talks on a $20 billion merger in 2021 but those talks failed to reach an agreement.
Western Digital and Kioxia both declined to comment on the report.
Deutsche Bank analysts said the news does not come as a surprise given that the company and activist investor Elliott Investment Management have been conducting a strategic review since June 2022. They said strategically, the deal would “would make a lot of sense given WDC and Kioxia are long-time joint venture partners for flash memory manufacturing at various locations in Japan.”
“The combined companies would have similar market share as the market leader in flash, Samsung, with ~30-35% share. The combined company should benefit from economies of scale and better negotiating power,” the analysts added.
The analysts also see the deal, if completed, as positive for the stock, noting the current share price is pricing in almost no value for its flash business.
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