JAPANESE MANUFACTURER Fujitsu is in talks with Western Digital about selling off its loss-making hard drive division, Japan's business daily Nikkei reported Thursday morning.

Nikkei estimated that the sale could be worth as much as $945 million. Fujitsu's hard drive business lost more than $47 million during its last fiscal year ended in March.

Fujitsu competes in a global hard drive data storage market that is 60 per cent dominated by the larger US based manufacturers Seagate and Western Digital.

Were Western Digital to buy up Fujitsu's hard drive business, its share of the 2.5 inch hard drive market could double to about 25 to 30 per cent, surpassing Seagate's approximately 20 per cent market share in the 2.5 inch devices primarily used in strong selling laptop PCs.

News that the two companies were in talks boosted Fujitsu's share price up 4.7 per cent on a day when Japan's overall Nikkei average fell 1.9 per cent. µ

L'Inq
Reuters