China has approved with conditions Western Digital's planned acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (GST), requiring that the Hitachi entity operate independently for at least two years after the acquisition.

China has approved Seagate Technology's proposed acquisition of Samsung Electronics' hard disk drive (HDD) business, but with conditions, including measures to minimize potential price increases after the deal, the country's Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.

Tech stocks looked strong Friday morning on the back of a week of upbeat surveys on small business and online spending, positive news about enterprise hardware and hopeful reports on U.S. employment and the European debt crisis.

The devastating floods in Thailand will cause a 28 percent quarter-on-quarter drop in hard disk drive (HDD) production in the fourth quarter, potentially affecting notebook production in early 2012, research firm IHS iSuppli said on Monday.

Western Digital said its primary manufacturing facility in Thailand was flooded over the weekend, with its secondary site also at risk, raising the possibility of a global shortage of hard disk drives (HDD) in the current quarter.