News Releases

12/05/2011

Schedule for Transfer of Hitachi’s Hard Disk Drive Business to Western Digital (update)

Tokyo, Japan, December 5, 2011 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT / TSE:6501) today announced a change in the schedule for transfer of Hitachi’s hard disk drive business to Western Digital Corporation (NYSE: WDC, “WD”), following WD’s announcement issued on December 1, 2011. WD now expects to close the transaction by March 2012 subject to the completion of obtaining approvals from European Commission and other regulatory authorities, according to the announcement by WD. It had previously been announced that the transaction was expected to close in the quarter ending December 2011(*1).

On March 7, 2011, Hitachi and WD entered into a definitive agreement to transfer all shares of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies’ holding company, Viviti Technologies Ltd. to WD, which is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals(*2).

*1 In May 2011, Hitachi announced that Hitachi and WD expected to close the transaction in the quarter ending December 2011 due to the European Commission’s determination to enter a Phase II review of the transaction. Please see “Schedule for Transfer of Hitachi’s Hard Disk Drive Business to Western Digital” (dated May 31, 2011).

*2 “Hitachi Transfers Hard Disk Drive Business to Western Digital” (dated March 7, 2011)