After Western Digital announced plans to separate its HDD and flash businesses in 2023, that plan now appears to have come to fruition, with the storage giant splitting its company into two distinct brands.
Despite knowing the move was coming, the timing is interesting, as WD recently launched an 8TB SSD as part of its WD Black SN850X series, joining the existing 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models in the lineup. range.
In an announcement, the company explains to customers: “We now operate as two specialized websites: WesternDigital.com for HDDs and platforms, and SanDisk.com for flash technology, including SSDs, memory cards, USB flash drives and more.”
What does it mean for buyers?
The company added that the creation of separate websites is designed to “better position each franchise to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalize on unique growth opportunities, expand respective market leadership positions, and operate more efficiently with different capital structures”.
David Goeckeler, chief executive of Western Digital, said at the time that the split was “an extremely complex transaction incorporating more than a dozen countries and spanning consumer data storage technology brands, professional content creators, major manufacturers world's largest device OEM and largest cloud. suppliers.”
Now that the split is complete, what will it mean for customers? The company says: “At WesternDigital.com, you can purchase all platform and HDD products from the following brands: Western Digital, WD, WD_BLACK, and SanDisk Professional. At SanDisk.com, you can purchase all flash products such as SSDs, memory cards, and USB flash drives from the following brands: Western Digital, WD, WD_BLACK, SanDisk, and SanDisk Professional.”
Of course, there will be repercussions for customers. If you have a Western Digital discount code, you can only use it to purchase products on the WD site. The opposite is true for customers with SanDisk codes.