Toshiba Corp. and Western Digital Corp. have announced that they have completed transactions of hard disk drive manufacturing assets from WD to Toshiba and vice versa. As a result of the transaction, Toshiba will gain 3.5" hard drive production capacities, whereas WD will get 2.5" HDD manufacturing assets.

As part of its deal with Toshiba, WD also completed its purchase of Toshiba Storage Device Thailand (TSDT), which manufactured hard drives prior to the recent Thailand flooding. The principal assets of TSDT are its Thailand property, facilities and employees, which WD plans to integrate into its Thailand operations. Acquisition of TSDT will boost Western Digital's positions on the market of 2.5" hard disk drives.

The WD's assets - which include manufacturing equipment and related intellectual property - will enable Toshiba to manufacture and sell 3.5" hard drives for the desktop and consumer electronics markets and will enhance its ability to manufacture and sell 3.5" hard drives for near-line (business critical) applications.

Going forward, Toshiba's consolidation of HDD production at two manufacturing facilities in the Philippines and a contract manufacturer in China will allow the company to strengthen its cost competitiveness by boosting manufacturing efficiency.

Having completed this reinforcement of its HDD operations, Toshiba aims to double sales in the business to ¥800 billion ($9.985 billion or €7.819) in fiscal year 2014.

The financial terms of the two agreements were not disclosed.

Tags: Toshiba, Western Digital, WD, Business