Irvine, CA—Western Digital completed its acquisition of Viviti Technologies Ltd. (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies), effective March 8, 2012, for $3.9 billion in cash and 25 million shares of WDC common stock valued at $0.9 billion.
Hitachi, Ltd. now owns approximately 10% of WDC shares and has the right to designate two individuals to WD’s board of directors. The new WD will operate with WD Technologies (WD) and HGST as wholly owned subsidiaries. Aggregated revenues of the two companies in 2011 were $15 billion.
As CEO of WD, John Coyne heads up the new office of the CEO, with Steve Milligan as president, Tim Leyden as chief operating officer and Wolfgang Nickl as chief financial officer.
“The completion of this acquisition is a truly momentous event in the 42-year history of our company,” said Coyne. “With ownership of two successful companies and the best talent available in the industry, we expect to accomplish great things as we build the new WD to be the world’s leading storage solutions provider with the industry’s deepest technology capability, broadest product portfolio and best-in-class execution. Similar to successful multi-brand models in other industries, the two subsidiaries will compete in the marketplace with separate brands and product lines while sharing common values of customer delight, value creation, consistent profitability and growth.” wdc.com
