Hitachi, IBM Consummate HDD Marriage

Tokyo’s Hitachi this
week made good on its blockbuster play to acquire Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM’s hard drive business for
$2.05 billion.

As per the original agreement, inked in
June, Hitachi paid 70 percent of the purchase price to IBM Tuesday —
the day of closing. Hitachi agreed to pay the remainder to IBM over the next
three years.

The new company, to be based in San Jose, Calif., will go by the name of
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and will be managed by an independent
team of executives from Hitachi and IBM’s HDD operations. Corporate managing
director of Hitachi Dr. Jun Naruse has been tapped as CEO for the new
company, with IBM’s Douglas Grose to serve as chief operating officer.

The companies said the new organization would employ about 24,000 — 18,000
from IBM and 6,000 from Hitachi — with major manufacturing operations at 11
locations around the world.

The business should give Hitachi considerable clout in the storage hardware
sector. The deal passed muster nearly seven months after it was first
announced, but only after clearing FTC
regulatory approval last month.

Hitachi and IBM previously received antitrust approval for the proposed
transaction from the European Commission, the Japan Fair Trade Commission,
Brazil’s Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica (CADE) and Taiwan’s
Fair Trade Commission.