Hitachi Ltd

Western Digital Corp., a familiar name in the computer industry, is poised to get a bit more familiar with the $4.3-billion acquisition of Hitachi Ltd.'s data storage business. Computer hard drives made by the Irvine company would make up more than half of the global market share, easily outpacing Seagate Technology, its longtime rival for the market leader position. Analysts said the deal is an effort by Western Digital to solidify its position at a time when sales of tablet computers and flash memory drives are surging while hard drives are sliding.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Hitachi Ltd. and Canon Inc. said they would link up their liquid crystal display businesses. The deal creates a third major force in the flat-panel industry in Japan along with Sony Corp.'s alliance with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and the Sharp Corp. and Toshiba Corp. team, which was announced last week.

Hitachi Admits Payments: Hitachi Ltd. has admitted that they received payments from Nomura Securities Co. to offset some of the losses the firm's portfolio suffered as a result of turbulence in the Tokyo stock market, the New York Times reported. The Japanese electronics firm said it had not been aware that Nomura's own funds were used to make up the losses.

American, Japanese Chip Firms Team Up: Texas Instruments Inc. and Hitachi Ltd. said they will jointly develop a future generation of powerful computer chips. The companies formed a design group in Japan to develop the technology needed to make 64-megabit semiconductors. The chips will hold the equivalent of 2,800 pages of text--16 times more than the most powerful memory chips now available.

TRW Inc.'s Velocium division and Hitachi Ltd. will jointly design and market a new, more efficient semiconductor chip for use in hand-held wireless devices, the companies said. Hitachi will market chip modules to manufacturers of third-generation wireless devices equipped with Internet access. Manhattan Beach-based Velocium will design and manufacture the chips, which TRW said already have been used for military and aerospace projects.

Gateway Inc., a personal computer maker that has had losses in 11 of the last 12 quarters, will sell server computers with Linux software and resell data-storage machines made by Hitachi Ltd. to boost sales to businesses. The average unit price for the storage machines is $50,000, Poway, Calif.-based Gateway said. The servers, used by companies to run networks and Web sites, will use a version of the Linux operating system developed by Suse Linux, which has agreed to be acquired by Novell Inc.

General Electric Co. and Hitachi Ltd. on Monday launched a joint nuclear business to capitalize on rising demand for electricity and increasing concerns about carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. John Krenicki, president and chief executive of GE Energy, said that nuclear plants produced virtually no carbon gases and that reactors could take the place of aging power plants that rely on fossil fuels.

U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co. and Japan's Hitachi Ltd. said Monday that they planned to pool their nuclear units in a $2-billion enterprise they hoped would capture more contracts as power suppliers gear up to build a new generation of plants. The two companies, which already have a joint venture for nuclear fuels, have also teamed up on a bid to build a nuclear power plant that merchant power company NRG Energy Inc. aims to build in Texas.

Gateway Inc., a personal computer maker that has had losses in 11 of the last 12 quarters, will sell server computers with Linux software and resell data-storage machines made by Hitachi Ltd. to boost sales to businesses. The average unit price for the storage machines is $50,000, Poway, Calif.-based Gateway said. The servers, used by companies to run networks and Web sites, will use a version of the Linux operating system developed by Suse Linux, which has agreed to be acquired by Novell Inc.

The Federal Trade Commission has approved IBM Corp.'s $2.05-billion sale of most of its hard-disk drive assets to Japan's Hitachi Ltd., the companies said. The deal still needs approval from Mexican regulators, an IBM spokesman said, adding that IBM expects the deal to close by the end of the year. The companies plan to combine their hard drive assets into a joint venture in which Hitachi initially will have a 70% stake. Hitachi plans to take full ownership of the venture after three years.

Hitachi Ltd., Japan's biggest electronics maker, issued a profit warning for its fiscal first half ending Sept. 30, confirming recent market fears of an earnings setback in Japan's high-tech sector. The company blamed the revisions on currency swings and isolated problems at a few divisions, but the firm made it clear that the business environment had worsened in the current quarter and uncertainty loomed for the second half of the year.

Hitachi Ltd., Japan's biggest private employer, said it will slash 14,700 jobs, or about 4.5% of its work force, joining rival electronics companies cutting costs as global demand slumps. Tokyo-based Hitachi will cut 10,200 jobs in Japan--7,200 by attrition and 3,000 through early retirement--and 4,500 overseas by March 2002 as it reorganizes its chip and computer display businesses, the company said. Toshiba Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and NEC Corp. already have announced job cuts.

Chip Venture in the Works: Hitachi Ltd. and Texas Instruments Inc. are planning to build a $500-million semiconductor plant in the Dallas suburb of Richardson. The companies said talks are continuing and they intend to form a joint venture in the first half of next year. The plant would make 16- and 64-megabit dynamic random-access memory chips, known as DRAMs, which store data in computers and other electronic products. Initial production is scheduled for 1996.

Japanese Companies to Slow Product Turnover: Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. plan to extend the life cycles of some of their products to two to three years from the current one year, a Japanese newspaper reported. The companies will prolong product cycles of household appliances, including refrigerators, air conditioners and washing machines, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said.

Two of Japan's largest electronics groups, Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp., each are looking at cutting 20,000 jobs because of the global tech slowdown and Japan's worsening economic slump, media reported. The cuts come after competitors NEC Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. said they would ax jobs as Japan's lumbering electronics giants face their second round of massive retrenchments in less than three years.

Hitachi said it will exit the conventional desktop computer display-tube business, citing sluggish PC demand and a shift to new displays. Hitachi said it will halt production of cathode ray tubes used to make computer displays and close plants employing 770 workers in Sakura City, Japan, 950 in Singapore and 1,670 in Johore, Malaysia. Hitachi said it is reviewing its options on the sale of the cathode ray tube business, which generated about $470 million in revenue last year.