r/investing Apr 24, 07:23 PM
ONE decision turned what looked like a $5 billion mistake into over $285 billion in market cap Western Digital paid $16 billion to acquire Sandisk back in 2016.
9 years later, drowning in debt, they spun it off to raise $3 billion...
The market valued SanDisk at just $5 billion on day one.
From the outside, it looked like a decade-long disaster finally being cleaned up.
Then AI happened.
Data centers started buying every hard drive and flash chip on the planet.
Both companies sold out their entire 2026 production.
Some contracts now run into 2028.
Today:
→ $WDC: ~$140B
→ $SNDK: ~$145B
→ Combined: ~$285B
SanDisk alone is up 2,600% in 14 months...
The two companies are currently the #1 and #2 best-performing large-cap stocks on the Nasdaq this year.
The decision wasn't made out of genius. It was made out of desperation.
And it might be the greatest corporate move in modern stock market history.
submitted by /u/RussFaigen
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