Only advantage HDD got over SSD is price/cost. By shutting it down to sustain HDD price, wouldn't it only allow the transition from HDD to SSD faster?
Now you can argue WDC has SSD too so the transition is just putting money from one pocket to another, but the problem is unlike HDD where there are only 3 players, NAND got lot more competitors, and even China might joining in later on. Nand price has been decreasing this year already. The margins will be compressed.
Is WDC closing the Malaysian plant a stereotypical corporate action that only looks at the short to medium term stock performance (by reducing expenses and stabilizing HDD price), while ignoring the longer term? I mean the rational theory in my mind is that, for corporate executives, it's more important to boost price NOW, while they are still in office, so they have higher bonuses thanks to better stock performance, rather than thinking the long term and keep the Malaysian factory open, which lead to a decrease in stock price in the short to medium term.
Thoughts?
Submitted August 12, 2018 at 07:43AM by oberlre02 https://ift.tt/2B0SssM
