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Western Digital to spin off flash business

theverge.com

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Re: Western Digital to spin off flash business

#2

Post by bragr »

So saddle all the legacy liabilities in with the legacy business and slowly suck out the equity, while the flash business grows? I can see how that's a win for investors at least. Are the flash products still going to be branded WD?

Re: Western Digital to spin off flash business

#3

Post by cogman10 »

bragr wrote: post #2

So saddle all the legacy liabilities in with the legacy business and slowly suck out the equity, while the flash business grows? I can see how that's a win for investors at least. Are the flash products still going to be branded WD?

Yup. Seems like an increasingly common move by businesses. AMD did this with global foundries, for example.

Re: Western Digital to spin off flash business

#5

Post by dehrmann »

bragr wrote: post #2

So saddle all the legacy liabilities in with the legacy business and slowly suck out the equity, while the flash business grows? I can see how that's a win for investors at least. Are the flash products still going to be branded WD?

Some companies have done this recently (J&J, iirc), but the article didn't mention any liabilities WD was trying to shed, and both these businesses are viable, so I'm not sure if this was just a knee-jerk corporate criticism or there's something to this.

Re: Western Digital to spin off flash business

#6

Post by tentacleuno »

ulfw wrote: post #4

I will never waste money on a Sandisk SSD again. My last one stopped working out of nowhere. Much happier with my Crucial X10.

On the contrary, my Sandisk SSD I got around (roughly) 6 years ago is still happily working, despite being utilised for a lot of writing. It's gone through 3 house moves, and it's still going strong -- what a great purchase.

My 2 Crucial MX500 SSDs have been pretty solid too; nothing bad to report on them.

Re: your SSD, did you RMA it?

Re: Western Digital to spin off flash business

#7

Post by kstrauser »

bragr wrote: post #2

So saddle all the legacy liabilities in with the legacy business and slowly suck out the equity, while the flash business grows? I can see how that's a win for investors at least. Are the flash products still going to be branded WD?

Nailed it. They’ve been spending goodwill like crazy with debacles like pushing out SMR junk under the Red name.

In my experience, their overall quality control has plummeted over the last few years. I’ve bought 3 Red drives for my home Synology. After about a year with each, the drive utilization graph will start creeping up toward a steady 100% while the other drives in the RAID are mostly idle. All drives have the same throughput. All drives have the same IOPS. And yet, the Red starts taking longer and longer to complete its requests. There aren’t any SMART errors or warnings. If I pull the drive and run WD’s diagnostics, it’s fine. It shows every sign of being perfectly healthy, other than being dog slow up until the day I replace it. I’m 3-for-3 with this happening. Maybe I’m the only person and they work great for everyone else. I won’t buy another, though.

I think we’re seeing WD turn into HP. People will still buy it for the name on the label, but those in the know will steer their friends to calmer waters.

Re: Western Digital to spin off flash business

#8

Post by splix »

ulfw wrote: post #4

I will never waste money on a Sandisk SSD again. My last one stopped working out of nowhere. Much happier with my Crucial X10.

There is no brand that never produced a SSD with a fault. I had tried all major HDD/SSD brands, and I think every single of them failed at some point.

What is important is how they handle that. I had a faulty Sandisk and it was replaced with a working one without any problem or unnecessary question. Some other brands annoy you with stupid questions, puzzles and other tricks trying to avoid doing a replacement. And some just ignore any requests (ex. Samsung, from my experience) to replace a faulty SSD.

Re: Western Digital to spin off flash business

#9

Post by SSLy »

dehrmann wrote: post #5
bragr wrote: post #2

So saddle all the legacy liabilities in with the legacy business and slowly suck out the equity, while the flash business grows? I can see how that's a win for investors at least. Are the flash products still going to be branded WD?

Some companies have done this recently (J&J, iirc), but the article didn't mention any liabilities WD was trying to shed, and both these businesses are viable, so I'm not sure if this was just a knee-jerk corporate criticism or there's something to this.

Spinning rust side is only living because of price collusion by the flash vendors. Price for 8TB of TLC generic is currently 170 USD. QLC is cheaper than that.
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