Western Digital and Hitachi, Ltd. announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement whereby WD will acquire Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $4.3 billion. The proposed combination will result in a customer-focused storage company, with significant operating scale, strong global talent and the industry's broadest product lineup backed by a rich technology portfolio.

Under the terms of the agreement, WD will acquire Hitachi GST for $3.5 billion in cash and 25 million WD common shares valued at $750 million, based on a WD closing stock price of $30.01 as of March 4, 2011. Hitachi, Ltd. will own approximately ten percent of Western Digital shares outstanding after issuance of the shares and two representatives of Hitachi will be added to the WD board of directors at closing. The transaction has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is expected to close during the third calendar quarter of 2011, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. WD plans to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash and total debt of approximately $2.5 billion.

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New entertainment products from ASUS to be shown at CeBIT 2011 include Blu-ray drives with advanced media format compatibility, 3D playback, smartphone remote control functionality and USB 3.0-based high speed write performance. Also on display at the show are all-new active noise cancelling headphones, designed to provide high quality portable personal audio.

The new ASUS O!Play BDS-700 Blu-ray player uses Qdeo video post-processing to deliver clear, vivid images in native high definition and upscaling of 480p DVD content. It supports Blu-ray 3D playback on compatible screens for immersive movie-watching experiences, delivering 7.1-channel surround sound mastered in Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. An independent audio-only HDMI port on the BDS-700 guarantees improved high definition audio performance through a dedicated channel.

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Super Talent Technology, a leading manufacturer of Flash storage solutions and DRAM memory modules, today unveiled its next generation TeraDrive. Featuring the 2nd generation SandForce controllers, a SATA III 6Gbps interface, and the new ONFi Double Data Rate NAND flash, these new drives promise to deliver twice the performance of their predecessors.

At 3 Gbps, the SATA 2 interface posed a bottleneck to existing SSD designs but little performance was to be gained by changing to SATA3. That just changed. As double data rate (DDR) NAND becomes available, SSD performance stands to double overnight. Since the new 2nd generation SandForce controllers support both SATA3 and DDR flash, we are now able to unleash the performance of these new designs.

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Plextor, a leading brand of high-performance storage and digital media solutions, introduces a new portable hard disk drive, equipped with a high-speed USB 3.0 connection.

The PX-PH500U3 is a strikingly compact 500GB portable hard disk. Formed of perfect aluminum it incorporates the latest SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface for exceedingly fast connection and data transfer rates. It is the fast new professional standard in portable hard disks from world renowned storage manufacturer Plextor. Power to the hard disk is also provided through the USB connector, eliminating the need to carry an additional power adapter.

Protecting the advanced drive mechanism an elegant casing crafted from aircraft grade aluminum results in a mere 162 grams total weight. The complete package includes a USB 3.0 cable and a stylish leatherette case provides additional protection during transportation. Complementing this well-balanced hardware, a range of powerful software applications comes preinstalled on the hard disk. Users can backup and restore valuable data using FNet PC Clone EX and maximize the read and write speeds with the Turbo HDD utility.

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