Western Digital to Acquire Virident for $685 Million
Western Digital said today that it's purchasing server-side flash drive maker Virident Systems for $685 million in cash.
The company will be officially acquired by Western Digital's subsidiary HGST. The purchase will move HGST further into the solid state drive (or SSD) market, which Western Digital says is expected to be a $7 billion business by 2017, up from $2.5 billion in 2012.
Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer or Western Digital, said in a press release that "we have established a competitive position in the enterprise SSD space and with our recently announced acquisitions we are increasing our commitment to become an even more significant player in this high growth segment."
Virident's SSD technology is used by businesses to bring additional performance to data centers through flash-based virtualization, database, cloud computing and webscale applications -- while reducing the physical size of data centers.
Virident's current CEO, Mike Gustafson, will join HGST as senior vice president and will lead the Virident team at the company. In a statement, Gustafson said, "We are excited to join HGST and accelerate the growth of our business, partnerships and value."
Western Digital expects the acquisition to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
The article Western Digital to Acquire Virident for $685 Million originally appeared on Fool.com.
Fool contributor Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Western Digital. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Copyright © 1995 - 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
