SanDisk and TippingPoint sell up

Western Digital buys SanDisk for $19bn while HP sells TippingPoint to Trend Micro for $300m

SanDisk and HP's TippingPoint arm have become the two latest sizeable vendors to find buyers, in the shape of Western Digital and Trend Micro, respectively.

Hot on the heels of Dell's proposed $67bn (£43.3bn) acquisition of EMC, US-based flash vendor SanDisk has agreed to sell up to hard-disk giant Western Digital for $19bn.

Also getting in on the M&A merry-go-round today was networking security vendor TippingPoint, which Trend Micro has grabbed for $300m from current owner HP.

Western Digital said its acquisition of SanDisk will double its addressable market and expand its participation in higher-growth segments of storage, citing SanDisk's prowess in the non-volatile memory market. The transaction is not expected to close until the third calendar quarter of 2016, until which time the two companies will continue to operate separately.

For its fiscal Q3 ending 27 September, SanDisk saw GAAP net profit almost halve year on year to $133m on revenues that fell 17 per cent to $1.45bn.

"The combined company will be ideally positioned to capture the growth opportunities created by the rapidly evolving storage industry," said Steve Milligan, chief executive of Western Digital.

Meanwhile, HP has agreed to sell TippingPoint to Trend Micro for $300m, five years after it acquired the intrusion prevention specialist as part of its $2.7bn purchase of 3Com.

HP, which is about to formally split into two separate firms, said the move reflects its decision to press ahead with a partnering strategy for network security and invest in areas of security that align with its overall strategy.

Mike Spanbauer, vice president of research at independent testing lab NSS Labs, argued that the deal will extend Trend's strength in end-point, cloud, datacentre and breach detection to the network.

"By combining two strong brands, this move accelerates Trend Micro's enterprise position into a non-competing segment, and provides a single, complete threat defence solution for enterprises seeking to make a critical security investment," he said.