Western Digital’s stock soars after WSJ report of talks on $20+ billion merger deal with Japan’s Kioxia

Shares of Western Digital Corp.
WDC,
+7.50%
soared 11.7% in afternoon trading Wednesday, to pace the S&P 500’s
SPX,
+0.23%
gainers, after The Wall Street Journal reported that the data storage company was in merger talks with Japan-based Kioxia Holdings Corp., in a deal that could be valued at more than $20 billion. Citing people familiar with the matter, the WSJ report said the long-running talks have heated up in the past few weeks, with a deal possible as early as the middle of September. Western Digital would use stock to pay for the deal, and the combined company would likely be run by David Goeckeler, its chief executive, the WSJ report said. The stock has now gained 22.5% year to date, while the SPDR Technology Select Sector ETF
XLK,
-0.08%
has rallied 21.0% and the S&P 500 has advanced 19.8%.