FTC to require Western Digital to sell off assets in acquisition
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will require Western Digital to sell off assets used to manufacture desktop hard drives to a competitor as a condition of its US$4.5 billion acquisition of rival Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the agency announced.
The deal, as originally proposed, would have left Western Digital as one of two companies that control the worldwide market for desktop hard disk drives, the FTC said. The agency announced a proposed settlement allowing the deal to go forward on Monday.
The deal was anticompetitive, the FTC said in a press release. "Protecting competition in the high-tech marketplace is a high priority for the FTC," Richard Feinstein, director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, said in a statement. "This order will ensure that vigorous competition continues in the worldwide market for desktop hard disk drives, and that consumers are not faced with higher prices or reduced innovation as a result of this deal."
