Why Are These Five Stocks In The Spotlight Today?

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) has rallied by 8.7% after Bloomberg published a report stating that SanDisk is in ‘advanced talks to sell itself’ to Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ:WDC) and that a deal could come as early as this week. The article says Western Digital is ‘discussing a price of between $80 and $90 per SanDisk share’. BusinessKorea previously published a report stating ‘there is fierce competition between global semiconductor companies to buy SanDisk’. Given the Bloomberg report, it seems Western Digital Corp might be the winner in the sweepstakes. There has been a wave of M&A activity in recent quarters as the era of cheap debt comes to an end. If Western Digital Corp acquires SanDisk, it remains to be seen whether management can find enough synergies to make the deal worthwhile. Western Digital Corp currently trades at 10.8 times forward earnings, and has benefited enormously from cloud storage growth, which has offset PC’s secular decline. By buying SanDisk, Western Digital Corp will further diversify.

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