Hitachi drops plan to sell stake in computer disk drive business

Tokyo: Japan's Hitachi has dropped plans to sell a stake in its troubled computer disk drive business and aims to turn the business around by going after market share and cutting costs, the head of the unit said.

Hitachi's determination to go it alone comes two days after Seagate Technology's outlook, hurt by price falls, missed expectations and sent its shares plummetting.

Hitachi, the world's No 3 maker of hard drives, last month broke off talks with US private equity firm Silver Lake on bringing in fresh capital after the unit swung to a profit in October-December even as credit markets soured for funds, sources said.

"We've talked to Hitachi [head office] and made a final decision. We have concluded that we will rebuild the business on our own," Hiroaki Nakanishi, head of the unit, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, told a news conference.