WD SSD/m.2 to be rebranded to Sandisk

mattyfez

mattyfez

mattyfez

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Western Digital to stop selling SSDs | NoypiGeeks

Western Digital announced that they will be splitting its HDD and SSD businesses into two different entities.
www.noypigeeks.com www.noypigeeks.com

Tax dodge or cutting losses?

Interesting the WD brand will only be HDD, and the new SSD/M.2 etc will be Sandisk branded...

I would have thought the WD brand would carry more weight in the consumer market as opposed to the business/enterprise market, so I would have done it the other way round, but what do I know!
 
Wow I am shocked to read that WD is quit SSD business.

I bought WD 4TB 850X SSD for less than £340 last christmas 2023 because WD had 50% off sale, it was much cheaper than Seagate very expensive £900 4TB FireCuda 530. WD 4TB 850X is far more reliable than Samsung 990 Pro SSDs which suffered failed health. Samsung was very slowed to launched 4TB 990 Pro model back in September 2023.

Also I have 3 USB memory sticks: ancient USB 2.0 32GB Sandisk, USB 3.0 128GB Sandisk and USB-C 256GB Kingston all worked fine with no issue and never had data loss.
 
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mattyfez said:
Tax dodge or cutting losses?
Click to expand...

Tax dodge? No

Cutting losses? Yes :(

2023 is however the worst year for SSD businesses and NAND manufacturers because they made too many wafers.

WD lost $1.706bn over the last 12 months.


Seagate lost $529m over the last 12 months.

Seagate Technology Reports Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results

Fiscal Q4 2023 Highlights Revenue of $1.60 billion GAAP (loss) per share of $(0.44); non-GAAP (loss) per share of $(0.18) Cash flow from operations of $218 million and free cash flow of $168 million Declared cash dividend of $0.70 per share Fiscal Year 2023 Highlights Revenue of $7.38 billion...
investors.seagate.com investors.seagate.com

Crucial was hit hardest lost $5.833bn over the last 12 months announced plan to reduced DRAM and NAND production wafers by 30%.


Samsung lost over $3.4bn over the last 12 months.

www.theverge.com

Samsung loses billions on chips as overall profits decline 95 percent

But smartphone performance was better.
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com
 
I would like to get 8TB SSD with DRAM soon with 50% offf on Black Friday or Christmas 2023 but it did not existed. Think I will hold on until 2024, Samsung will launch 9th generation SSDs with 300 layers V-NAND.
 
Meddling-Monk said:
So it's a grab now if you remotely resemble needing storage any time soon?
Click to expand...
More so because they are slowing production of the chips and some like Samsung are planning a 20% increase in prices in 2024, I think that was for the first two quarters so could be a big jump in prices.
 
Seems a odd choice considering the amount of history and name recognition WD has compare to Sandisk that is usually lumped into flash media.
 
Glanza said:
Seems a odd choice considering the amount of history and name recognition WD has compare to Sandisk that is usually lumped into flash media.
Click to expand...
I think Sandisk have also had some reliability issues recently which is likely to tarnish the current WD high end. One to keep an eye on...
 
Sandisk is the gold standard of flash media so I can understand why WD would want to lean on that brand.
 
WD bought SanDisk a while back so that's not really a supprise they are pick n. mixing from both inventories.

I suppose I was just supprised that they would be using the SanDisk brand for SSD rather than WD in future.
Although I appreciate SanDisk is the big name in SD cards.
 
mattyfez said:
WD bought SanDisk a while back so that's not really a supprise they are pick n. mixing from both inventories.

I suppose I was just supprised that they would be using the SanDisk brand for SSD rather than WD in future.
Although I appreciate SanDisk is the big name in SD cards.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure there is such a thing as 'both inventories'. I don't remember WD having any SSD presence until it bought Sandisk so all SSD manufacture is from what was Sandisk. Once it has been spun off as a separate company it would be a marketing nightmare to have it still called WD and there may well be legal reasons why not too.
Cyber-Mav said:
suppose keep the wd name for mechanical drives
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Exactly. Keep the names and function that both parts of the company are best known for.
 
mattyfez said:
One problematic phrase

"activist investor"​


www.theregister.com

Western Digital investor calls for flash unit to be split

HDD and NAND memory maker has 'underperformed by any objective measure'
www.theregister.com www.theregister.com

Translated, does that mean an agressive take-over by a 'hack 'n' slash' asset stripper?
Click to expand...

Activist investors don't have the shares to force anything, they get a small % then make noises about how the business should be run to make more money.

Apparently the noises they made convinced enough other shareholders to force a change.
 
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