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SanDisk to buy flash maker Fusion-io for $1.1B

The acquisition is designed to help SanDisk go deeper into selling flash memory to business customers.

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A SanDisk flash memory card in a smartphone. Sarah Tew/CNET

SanDisk has signed a deal to acquire fellow flash memory maker Fusion-io, the companies said Monday.

The all-cash deal values Fusion-io at $11.25 a share, or $1.1 billion, which represents a 21 percent premium over Fusion-io's Friday closing price. Fusion-io shares are up nearly 25 percent to $11.58 in pre-market trading, while SanDisk remains unchanged from its Friday closing price of $98.47.

Salt Lake City-based Fusion-io makes flash memory products and software used in data centers, while Milpitas,Calif.-based SanDisk makes flash memory cards such as the microSD cards that store files on smartphones and tablets. The acquisition will give SanDisk the chance to focus more on businesses as customers.

"Fusion-io will accelerate our efforts to enable the flash-transformed data center, helping companies better manage increasingly heavy data workloads at a lower total cost of ownership," SanDisk CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter and to contribute to SanDisk earnings in the second half of 2015.