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DISK Seagate and Toshiba both want to acquire TDK's disk read/write head business Toshiba and Seagate are competing to acquire TDK’s disk drive magnetic head operation according to Bloomberg. TDK is the only independent supplier of HDD recording heads and sells to all three drive makers—Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba. The latter depends on TDK for all of its heads, including technology needed for its HAMR plans. But Seagate and Western Digital use TDK for surge capacity as they mostly make heads in-house. With a single main customer, which has a low share of the disk drive market, 10 - 11 percent, TDK’s disk drive head business is viewed as a small operation with low profitability, compared to its other divisions producing batteries, passive components, and sensors. Overall, the unit’s business performance is volatile and capital-intensive, and secondary reporting puts its return on invested capital around 4 percent. TDK’s July 2026 most recent business performance report said “Sales of HDD heads and HDD suspension assemblies increased due to continuous robust demand in the HDD market, resulting in an increase in profitability.”The demand comes from AI data centers and sales are expected to increase. Full year sales of TDKs Magnetic Application Products segment (HDD heads, suspension assemblies, and magnets) in the fiscal year ended March 2026 were ¥262.9 billion ($1.74 billion), up 17.6 percent Y/Y, with operating profit increasing strongly, about 8x, ¥27.0 billion ($179 million). The HDD head portion is not known but will be smaller. Nearline head volume was up roughly 14 percent and suspension volume about 35 percent. A TDK statement said “Certain media reports have been published regarding HDD head business of the Company. However, these reports are not based on any announcement made by the Company. The Company is pursuing initiatives, including strengthening its business portfolio management, to further enhance corporate value, but no decisions have been made at this time.” Neither WD nor Seagate responded to Bloomberg requests for comment. Comment Were Seagate to succeed in buying TDK’s head business then Toshiba would find itself buying heads from one of its two main and much larger competitors. WD would also effectively find its surge capacity buying option would be closed off. Authorities in the competition area might well have doubts about allowing this to go ahead on that dual basis.
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