Press Release: Mergers: Commission opens in-depth investigations into two proposed acquisitions in the hard disk drive sector

The European Commission has opened two separate in-depth investigations under the EU Merger Regulation into two proposed concentrations in the hard disk drive ("HDD") sector. The first transaction concerns the planned acquisition of the HDD business of Korean firm Samsung by Seagate Technology of the US. The second transaction concerns the planned acquisition of the storage business of Japan's Hitachi by Western Digital Corporation of the US. HDDs systems are used in a variety of professional and consumer electronic goods to store and access digital data, including computers, digital video recorders and camcorders.