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.