Fujitsu continues search for HDD buyer

Fujitsu has finally confirmed that it is looking for buyers interested in picking up the company’s struggling hard disk drive business.

"If we keep it [the HDD business] as it is, losses from that business will grow," Fujitsu spokesperson Kazuhiko Kato told the Wall Street Journal.

An unconfirmed report published in October indicated Fujitsu would sell its storage business to Western Digital (WD), but nothing official was announced.  The company has reportedly been "approached by many" companies for the HDD business, although only WD has been publicly named.

"We are exploring various possibilities for our HDD business," a Fujitsu spokesperson said in a statement in October.  If completed, the deal would likely be worth $660 million to $994 million.

The deal would be lucrative for WD or any other company, as acquiring Fujitsu’s storage business would allow the buying company to better compete against Seagate, which is the active HDD leader.

In the fiscal year ending in March 2009, Fujitsu expects its HDD business to lose at least $107.5 million.

Along with its HDD unit, Fujitsu may also sell its chip operations facilities, or create a joint venture with interested manufacturers.  Lenovo has shown interested in purchasing the Fujitsu Siemens, though the two companies haven’t held official talks.  Fujitsu and Siemens came together to create the joint venture, and Fujitsu will purchase the 50 percent stake Siemens currently owns.

Japanese businesses continue to struggle as both the Japanese economy and the world economy are getting hammered.  Sony recently announced it has been forced to cut at least 8,000 jobs over the next two years, in an effort to save $1.1 billion by March 2010.

PC shipments in the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, Japan and India have all suffered over the past several quarters, with more nations expected to have PC slowdowns as well.