1.4 billion Samsung Electronics to sell hard drive business to Seagate

Samsung Electronics announced a 1.4 billion cash and stock prices to sell its disk drive business to Seagate, Samsung will receive 4,520 shares of Seagate stock, worth $ 687,500,000, representing approximately 9.6% of total share capital of Seagate; the remainder will be paid in cash.
Western Digital had to spend 4.3 billion acquisition of Hitachi’s disk drive business, has become one the world’s largest hard disk manufacturers. The acquisition Samsung Seagate hard drive business, will make the market more competitive.
Samsung and Seagate said in a statement, the transaction is completed, Seagate users in China and Southeast Asia will be consolidated basis. In addition, NAND flash memory chips to stabilize supply, is conducive to the development of its solid-state hard drive business.
Samsung said in February, with U.S. pharmaceutical services company Quintiles, a joint venture healthcare company to achieve business diversification, get rid of dependence on consumer electronics. The company sold the business will help drive new business areas for investment financing.

Earlier, sources said Samsung Electronics is considering a price of 1.5 billion sale of its loss on the hard disk business to raise capital to invest in new growth areas.
Apple iPad and the success of other tablet PCs, hard drives (HDD) industry has been under pressure, because these products use a flash memory chips rather than disks. These new products are also thought to affect a large hard drive user – consumer notebook sales growth.
Samsung, the fourth quarter of 2010 market share in the global hard disk is 11%, but the business has been losing money, prompting the sale of its considerations. The source said: "Samsung Electronics is considering selling its disk drive business, because the business does not make sense strategically; (Samsung) is not a follower of the business is not a leader, and the business is still a loss. "