Western Digital Corp's $1-billion announcement of its acquisition agreement with hard-disk drive manufacturer, Komag Inc, last week is expected to mount pressure on its rivals to consolidate. (See: Disk drive consolidation as Western buys Komag)

Particularly under pressure will be its leading South Korean rival, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, to acquire a business that would make it vertically more integrated.

Samsung already faces competition from Japan's Hitachi Ltd that acquired most of IBM's disk drive business in 2003, Seagate Technology Inc that acquired Maxtor and now a Western Digital strengthened by the Komag deal. The three among them own a significant marketa significant amount of suppliers.

Samsung could benefit from acquiring any number of companies, including TDK Corp. or Fujitsu Ltd., of Tokyo.

TDK, which makes a variety of electronic components including parts used in the manufacture of hard-drives, could emerge as an acquirer or a target. In April, this year, it sold its recording media business, which made CDs and DVDs, to Imation Corp for $370 million in a deal that helped streamline its operations.