Top Western Digital Corp. executives have been in discussions with counterparts at Toshiba Corp. for weeks amid rising speculation that the Irvine-based storage products maker could bid on the conglomerate’s flash memory business.
“As we all know from recent disclosures by Toshiba and news reports, our flash joint venture partner is facing challenges,” WD Chief Executive Steve Milligan told analysts on a recent conference call.
The Tokyo-based company likely will take a massive write-down of between $4.3 billion and $6.1 billion in the coming weeks from its failing U.S. nuclear power business, according to news reports.
The companies have been strategic partners for more than a decade and last year through a joint venture established a 297,000-square-foot flash memory manufacturing plant in Yokkaichi, Japan.
A majority of WD’s NAND-flash memory is primarily supplied through its business ventures with Toshiba, according to its annual report. NAND flash is the most popular rewritable memory chip used in USB drives, cameras, iPods, smartphones, tablets and other devices.
“We are confident that their semiconductor memory business remains healthy and strategically viable,” Milligan said. “Under any circumstance, we will act to protect Western Digital’s interest and work to ensure that we maintain the leadership position of our joint venture.”
WD is the world’s largest hard drive maker in revenue and units sold. It posted sales of $4.9 billion and an adjusted profit of $675 million in the December quarter, topping analyst estimates. It projects sales in the current quarter of $4.55 billion, below Wall Street targets of $4.76 billion, and an adjusted profit between $570.9 million and $599.4 million, below consensus estimates of $608 million.
FB Likes E-Sports
Facebook Inc. will broadcast Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s growing college e-sports tournament this month, building on a partnership launched last year.
Group stages of the Heroes of the Dorm 2017 competition will begin broadcasting on Facebook Live on Feb. 15 and 16, along with follow-up rounds leading up to the April 8 championship.
Colleges across the U.S. and Canada compete in the free-to-play online brawler “Heroes of the Storm,” which has become an e-sports staple in the amateur and pro circuits since its 2015 release, with the chance to earn free tuition for the remainder of their schooling.
More than $500,000 in scholarships and prizes will be handed out this spring.
Arizona State University won the title last year, avenging a 2015 loss in the finals to the University of California-Berkeley in the first year of the tournament.
ESPN 2 has broadcast the championship for the past two years, highlighting the growing audience and influence of competitive video gaming.
Menlo Park-based Facebook has more than 650 million users every month who play video games across online, mobile and console formats, and some 1.2 billion daily active users globally.
Lantronix Turnaround
Irvine-based networking equipment maker Lantronix Inc. posted its most successful quarter since Jeff Benck took the helm about a year ago.
The company in the December quarter reported revenue of $11.2 million, up 18% from a year earlier, and an adjusted profit of $444,000 compared to a loss of $196,000 a year earlier. Both figures topped Wall Street expectations.
“We’re focused on three key initiatives this year: driving operational excellence to improve the fundamentals of our business; fueling continued growth in our IT management product line through shared gains; and executing on our strategic product roadmap, including investing in new offerings to more broadly participate in the fast growing IoT market,” Benck told analysts on a recent conference call.
