Western Digital To Acquire sTec, Beef Up HGST SSD, Flash Storage Business

Todd Swank, senior director of product marketing at Equus Computer Systems, a Minneapolis-based system builder, said Western Digital's proposed acquisition of sTec is evidence of a continuing rationalization of the SSD business, and will likely be welcomed by the channel.

"There's such a bloodbath in the SSD space," Swank said. "Who are the masters? Companies like Samsung and Intel (NSDQ:INTC) that have their own chip manufacturing. Western Digital and Seagate are seeing the importance of having the chip business."

Western Digital is reacting to the growing long-term strength of the SSD market, while sTec was competing in the brutal second-tier SSD market, Swank said.

"The second-tier SSD market is so competitive, it's silly to be selling someone else's stuff," he said. "Getting Western Digital behind sTec should result in big changes to that company. Consolidation in this space is good for all of us. It's hard to keep up with all the vendors. SSDs is one of the more active categories in the channel." 

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