It was announced this week that the off-loading of Fujitsu’s hard disk drive business to Toshiba has been authorised. I wrote about the context of this earlier this year. Fujitsu was also off-loading some of its operation to SDK (once well known for cassette tapes). I thought this made it a good time to update my hard disk drive forecast and talk about the mergers and acquisitions taking place in the downturn.
The Hard Disk Drive Market Was Better In Q209 Than Q109
You probably don’t want to hear this, but… I’ve revised my assessment of Q109 downwards. I now believe the market for hard disk drives dropped 36% in $US values and a staggering 43% in Japanese Yen – no wonder Fujitsu decided to off-load. In Q209, however the market actually proved a bit stronger than I had previously forecasted – coming in at (just!) -21%. The best performer of the vendors I track was Western Digital, where business only shrank by 3%. I see the market getting progressively better from here, reaching positive growth for the first time in Q210.
Pending And Completed Mergers and Acquisitions In 2009
A downturn is always a good time for companies to restructure, acquiring or off-loading business. The most important of these activities for the ITC market are:
- HP’s acquisition of EDS, which has been finalised for a long time. but continues to be integrated (legally and organisationally) into HP
- Oracle’s acquisition of Sun ($7.4B), which has passed the US regulators but is waiting on the approval of the EU, which won’t come until February next year
- EMC’s recently announced acquisition of Data Domain ($2.1B)
- IBM’s announced purchase of the software company SPSS ($1.bB)
- The newly announced merger of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK
- And, of course, the off-loading of Fujitsu’s hard disk drive business to Toshiba (now approved)
Companies struggling in the recession, combined with low share prices have made the last six months a strong purchasing time for the strongest players. I expect activity to trail off as the market (and stock markets) pick up.
Filed under: Fujitsu Tagged: | Data Domain, EDS, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Martin Hingley, Orange, SDK, SPSS, T-Mobile, Toshiba
