Western Digital in good shape and is investing

Not just happy with being the leader in terms of performances on the SATA hard drive market, Western Digital recently announced having acquired a development team from ST which is specialized in hard drive controllers as well as a series of patent and design tools.

This should give the manufacturer added control in the conception and development of this type of component. It could also translate into the faster arrival of its products on the market and more efficiency in production. One item of interest is that this acquisition was made public in a conference call with investors which took place to announce financial results for fiscal year 2008 that ended June 27th.

The least we can say is that with revenue of $8.1 billion or a 48% increase over one year and profits at $867 million versus a previous $564, Western Digital is doing quite well. Thus, the company has significant means which it is investing to prepare for the future. This is most likely not totally unrelated to the massive arrival of relatively inexpensive SSDs expected to occur at the start of the next decade.