Kioxia has completed the acquisition of Lite-On’s SSD business, which was announced in August 2019. When the first negotiations of the $165 million acquisition began, Kioxia was still in the market under the name Toshiba Memory. In the future, the established Lite-On brand name will be retained despite the new owner. The Plextor brand, which was part of Lite-On’s SSD division, is also part of the acquisition and is also to remain in the market.
Originally, the takeover was to take place much earlier. However, the global Covid 19 pandemic has caused a delay of about three months. Strategically, Kioxia wants to strengthen its own SSD division by purchasing the competitor, while Lite-On can concentrate on its core business in automotive electronics, industrial automation and cloud computing.
Plextor nearly disappeared from the market
A few years ago, the Plextor brand was still strongly represented in the end customer segment. The company was able to build up a good reputation among enthusiasts, particularly with its high-quality HDDs and DVD and Blueray drives. In recent years, however, Plextor products have increasingly disappeared from the market in Europe. It is therefore unclear whether the takeover can lead the former class leader back to its former glory. Lite-On-SSDs, on the other hand, are mainly installed in OEM systems and in the enterprise sector.
