WDC names leadership for Flash & HDD units after split
Western Digital Corp. has previously disclosed its plan to separate into two independent, publicly traded companies. Now the company says that significant progress towards the separation is underway.
On track for the second half of the calendar year 2024, WDC is making progress on several key transactional projects – including global legal entity establishment, customer and supplier contract transfers, final stage preparation for government filings, and initial executive leadership appointments for both HDD and Flash companies post-separation.
It was in October last year that Western Digital plans to separate its HDD and Flash businesses, creating two public companies with market-specific, strategic focus. The idea is that the separation will better position each franchise to execute innovative technology and product development, capitalise on growth opportunities and operate more efficiently with distinct capital structures.
In the current phase of the separation process, WDC is making progress on a broad scope of projects needed to complete the transaction as scheduled. Currently, the company's separation teams are establishing legal entities in the 18 countries where operations are located, preparing independent company financial models, finishing final preparations for SEC and IRS filings, and conducting a contract assignment process for global customers.
“Today’s announcement highlights the important steps we’re making towards the completion of an extremely complex transaction that incorporates over a dozen countries and spans data storage technology brands for consumers to professional content creators to the world’s leading device OEMs and the largest cloud providers,” said David Goeckeler, CEO of Western Digital, in a press release.
Establishing the executive leadership team for the Flash spinoff company also is progressing with Goeckeler as the appointed CEO Designate.
“While both Western Digital’s businesses will have the strategic focus and resources to pursue exciting opportunities in their respective markets once the separation is complete, the Flash business offers exciting possibilities with market growth potential and the emerging development of disruptive, new memory technologies. I am definitely looking forward to what’s next for the spinoff team,” says Goeckeler.
Irving Tan, currently Executive Vice President of global Operations at Western Digital, will step into the CEO role for the remaining standalone HDD company to continue operating as Western Digital.
