WD wants to buy Kioxia for over $20 billion

Kioxia was founded in 2018, it consists of the former NAND flash memory division of Toshiba. The firm's independence may be short-lived as rumors are circulating that Western Digital is eyeing a takeover of Kioxia.

A $20 billion deal to rule a third of the NAND market?

According to WSJ, the talks between the two firms are in advanced stage and a resolution could be reached as early as mid-September. WD reportedly wants to pay for the deal, which is valued at over $20 billion, by issuing stock. It definitely seems like a massive deal for WD considering the storage firm's market cap is just $20 billion.

Long-running discussions between the companies have heated up in the past few weeks and they could reach agreement on a deal as early as mid-September, the people said. Western Digital would pay for the deal with stock and the combined company would likely be run by its Chief Executive, David Goeckeler, the people said.

There’s no guarantee Western Digital, which had a market value of around $19 billion Wednesday afternoon, will seal an agreement, and Kioxia could still opt for an initial public offering it had been planning or another combination.

WD bought SanDisk in 2014 so the acquisition of Kioxia would mean a lot of assets of the former Toshiba-SanDisk joint-venture would be combined again. Kioxia has a marketshare of 18.3 percent, together with WD it would account for 33 percent of the market. The WD-Kioxia combination would be about as large as Samsung's NAND division.