Western Digital, one of the biggest names in the storage space, announced that it will stop selling SSDs under the WD brand.

The company’s board of directors voted to separate their hard disk drive (HDD) and flash memory (SSD) businesses into two independent, publicly traded companies. This will allow them to improve their strategic focus so they can innovate on their own.

This move is planned to be implemented in the second half of 2024. Once implemented, Western Digital will only sell HDDs. Meanwhile, their SSD products will be handled by SanDisk, a company they bought back in 2016 for USD19 billion.

Over the past few years, some SanDisk SSDs have been sold under the Western Digital branding. But once the change is implemented, SanDisk will revert to its pre-acquisition state — which means that all SSDs will be branded to SanDisk — while Western Digital products will be exclusively HDDs.

Hopefully, this move also translates to better quality control, which SanDisk has been struggling with lately as we’re seeing an increase in consumer complaints regarding sudden data loss.

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