WESTERN DIGITAL CORP WDC → Sandisk Corporation SNDK
| Parent | WESTERN DIGITAL CORP WDC |
|---|---|
| Spinco | Sandisk Corporation SNDK |
| Status | Completed |
| Structure | Spin-off A filing states a pro-rata distribution: holders receive shares automatically. |
| Focus | Not focus-increasing Parent and spinco remain in the same industry; the separation divides scale rather than business. |
| Ratio | 1 Sandisk share for every 3 Western Digital shares |
| Parent retains | 19.9% |
| When-issued ticker | SNDKV |
| Checked against EDGAR | 2026-08-22 |
Data trap
Two share counts and a typo. The first quarterly report gave 114,863,251 shares on its cover; an amendment filed ten days later corrected that to 144,863,251, which is the figure that matches the information statement. Anything that scraped the original cover carries a count 30 million shares light. Separately, roughly 115 million shares were actually distributed against 144.9 million outstanding, because Western Digital retained 19.9 percent to unwind later through debt-for-equity exchanges.
The restated filings have landed; this is kept as history.
Catalyst clock
- 2023-10-30Separation announced
- 2024-11-25Form 10 filed
- 2025-01-27Form 10 last amended
- 2025-01-31Form 10 effective
- 2025-02-12Record date
- 2025-02-13When-issued trading opens
- 2025-02-21Distribution
- 2025-05-07First standalone earnings
- —Index inclusion announced
Performance since separation
| Sandisk Corporation since separation | +3184.12% |
|---|---|
| WESTERN DIGITAL CORP over the same window | +784.90% |
| S&P 500 (SPY) over the same window | +27.63% |
| Russell 2000 (IWM) over the same window | +37.72% |
| Excess over the S&P 500 | +3156.49% |
| Excess over the Russell 2000 | +3146.40% |
Measured from the first regular-way close on or after the distribution — 2025-02-24 at 48.60 — to 2026-08-21 at 1596.08. Window: 1.5 years. The 2025-02-21 session was skipped: it traded on when-issued volume, not regular-way, and pricing from it would measure the return against a market that no longer existed the next day. Two benchmarks, because one is misleading: spin-offs are usually small companies, and across this period small caps lagged the S&P by several points a year on their own. Measured against the S&P alone, roughly a third of any shortfall is company size rather than the separation. Returns are arithmetic over end-of-day closing prices. Unlike every other figure on this page, they do not come from a filing.
Pre-distribution investor return
| Parent, announcement to separation | +70.53% |
|---|---|
| Combined (WESTERN DIGITAL CORP + Sandisk Corporation), pre-distribution to now | +1740.48% |
| Combined excess over the S&P 500 | +1715.03% |
| Combined excess over the Russell 2000 | +1706.72% |
Combined treats a pre-spin holding as 1 Sandisk share for every 3 Western Digital shares valued at the parent's last close before regular post-spin trading resumed — 2025-02-20 at 53.87 — against that same basket today. That baseline is a practical proxy, not an attempt to isolate exactly how much value the separation transferred: for a large parent and a small spinco, ordinary day-to-day price noise can be bigger than the transfer itself. Run-up measures only the parent's own price, from the announcement date to that same baseline — how far the market had already moved before the separation's mechanics ever happened.
Filings
Every fact on this page comes from one of these.
- 10-12Bfiled 2024-11-25 · 0001193125-24-264578Initial Form 10 registration statement
- 10-12B/Afiled 2025-01-27 · 0001193125-25-013282Amendment 3; Ex-99.1 information statement carries the 1-for-3 ratio, the February 12 record date and the 80.1/19.9 split
- 8-Kfiled 2025-02-03 · 0001193125-25-019298Final information statement dated February 3, 2025
- 8-Kfiled 2025-02-14 · 0001193125-25-027285States when-issued trading ran under SNDKV from February 13 to February 21, 2025
- 8-Kfiled 2025-02-24 · 0001193125-25-033433Completion: effective 11:59 p.m. Pacific on February 21, 2025, regular-way trading from February 24
- 10-Q/Afiled 2025-03-17 · 0002023554-25-000016Corrects the cover share count from 114,863,251 to 144,863,251
Notes
Western Digital's separation of its NAND flash business, restoring Sandisk as an independent company. The distribution took effect at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on February 21, so regular-way trading began the following session. Classified non-focus-increasing: both companies remain storage-device makers under the same four-digit SIC, and the split is between flash and hard-disk technologies rather than between industries.