Western Digital has agreed to sell its IntelliFlash business to multi-cloud data management company DDN.
DDN will also increase its purchase of Western Digital’s HDD and SSD storage devices as per a multi-year sourcing agreement.
DDN has recently expanded its business by buying enterprise and multicloud technologies. The deal to buy IntelliFlash extends DDN’s leadership as a value-add provider of AI and multicloud data management solutions.
DDN will have more than 10,000 customers and 500 partners worldwide.
“With this acquisition, we are strengthening our strategic partnership with Western Digital, who will become both a customer of IntelliFlash by DDN and a key HDD and SSD supplier to DDN,” Alex Bouzari, CEO and co-founder of DDN, said.
This announcement is part of Western Digital’s strategy to exit Storage Systems. Storage business of Western Digital includes the IntelliFlash and ActiveScale businesses. The company is exploring strategic options for ActiveScale.
Western Digital aims to optimize its Data Center Systems portfolio around its core Storage Platforms business, which includes the OpenFlex platform and fabric-attached storage technologies.
“By refocusing our Data Center Systems resources on our Storage Platforms business, we are confident that the Western Digital portfolio will be better positioned to capture significant opportunities ahead and drive long-term value creation,” Mike Cordano, president and chief operating officer of Western Digital, said.
Western Digital’s exit of Storage Systems is expected to generate an annual non-GAAP EPS benefit of at least $0.20 starting in the fiscal 2020 third quarter ending April 3, 2020. The company will also incur restructuring and other charges.
