Lake Forest’s Western Digital Corp., the top maker of disk drives for computers, portable storage devices and consumer electronics, acquired some assets of Japanese glass maker Hoya Corp. for $235 million.
The cash deal, which was announced Tuesday evening, is expected to close during the current quarter.
The move helps Western Digital get a steady supply of glass that goes into 2.5-inch disk drives, which are used primarily in notebook computers and their smaller cousins, netbooks.
Hoya is the biggest supplier of glass substrates, which are applied as a thin layer on the the spinning magnetic disks that make up the bulk of a drive.
“The acquisition will augment Western Digital’s existing magnetic media operations, strengthening its ability to meet anticipated growth in demand for hard drives in the years ahead,” the company said in a statement.
As part of the deal, Western Digital is set to get Hoya’s Singapore facilities, intellectual property and some research and development offices in Nagasaka, Japan.
Hoya’s current workers are set to join Western Digital. The unit will become a subsidiary of the company’s media operations.
In the past 10 years or so, Western Digital has been making strategic buys that allow it to make nearly all of the disk drive itself.
This helps ensure a steady supply of parts and cuts down on costs.
The Hoya unit is likely to continue supplying glass to other disk drive makers, including Western Digital’s rival, Scotts Valley-based Seagate Technology LLC.
Based on past acquisitions of parts makers, Western Digital is likely to phase out sales to other drive makers as contracts run out.
The Hoya acquisition “does protect Western Digital from shortages by putting them to the front of the line” ahead of competitors, Rich Kugele, an analyst at Needham & Co. in Boston, said in a research note.
In 2007, Western Digital paid $1 billion for San Jose’s Komag Inc., a maker of media, the spinning disk inside the drive.
In 2003, it acquired Fremont’s Read-Rite Corp., which makes a part of the drive that reads and writes the data, for around $95 million.
