Western Digital-Kioxia $20B merger talks stall - WSJ

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• Talks for a $20 billion-plus merger between Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) and Japan's Kioxia Holdings have stalled, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• The companies had reportedly been talking since early this year about an all-stock deal to build a memory-chip powerhouse.
• But they're on hold now partly due to the slip in Western Digital shares: They reached a 52-week high on June 4, and are down 27% since.
• The two companies have deep ties, which helped Western Digital get ahead of rival Micron (NASDAQ:MU) in position for a deal. (Micron had also been exploring a deal for the NAND flash memory maker.)
• Premarket: WDC +0.4%; MU -0.3%.
• Any deal was set to face some heavy scrutiny in Japan. A senior member of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party said any merger should split operations equally.
• And Kioxia was weighing an initial public offering rather than merging with Western Digital, though IPO plans are currently on hold as well.