Hitachi may sell HDD business

According to Reuters news report, Hitachi has set a policy to sell hard-disk hard disk (HDD) business. More than one fund is listed as a candidate for selling.

Details are as follows.
日立<6501.T>がＨＤＤ事業売却の方針、複数のファンドが候補に＝関係筋 | Reuters

According to this article, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), which was established by integrating the HDD business acquired from IBM in December 2002 with its HDD division, has declined production efficiency and HDD price declines We have received an operating loss for the fourth consecutive term by FY 2006, and we are planning to sell the HDD business because we expect an operating loss of 33 billion yen in the year ending March 31, 2008.

Hitachi has already coordinated with Merrill Lynch to select American Merrill Lynch as a financial advisor to sell HDD business and has already started negotiations for selling it with three American investment funds such as Carlyle Group through Merrill Lynch.

It is unclear as to whether Hitachi will ultimately sell the whole HDD business or just sell a part, but in 2005HDD maker Maxtor will be acquired by SeagateIt seems that the hard times for HDD manufacturers are still going on.

About some reports on hard disk drive business

According to the link above, Hitachi has announced that "We have not decided about the sale of this project," according to this report, but I'm curious what will happen in the end.