31 / 100
and competitors following a public
consultation. The proposed acquisition is
unlikely to lead to a substantial lessening
of competitionwithin the Relevant Market
in Singapore for the following reasons:
1. These may be used in
personal computers,
consumer electronics,
cloud computing and
datacentre applications,
enterprise class solid
state drives, and hybrid
drives.
2. These include Enterprise
SSDs,SSDsforconsumer-
operated devices, aswell
as removable cards,
USB flash drives and
embeddedflashproducts
formobileandconnected
a p p l i c a t i o n s a n d
consumer electronics.
3. There are three main
interface standards
used for Enterprise
SSDs, namely: (i) Serial
Advanced Technology
Attachment (“SATA”);
(ii) Serial Attached SCSI
(“SAS”)whereSCSIstands
for Small Computer
System Interface; and
(iii)PeripheralComponent
Interconnect Express
(“PCIe”).
4. The Parties submitted
a wider product market
definitionofallEnterprise
Solid State Storage
products, which would
include at minimum
Enterprise SSDs of all
interfaces and NAND-
based All Flash Arrays
(“AFA”s).
5. Although the post-
Transaction market
share figures of the
Par ties cros s the
indicative thresholds
for both SAS interface
Enterprise SSDs and
PCIe interface Enterprise
SSDs, the market can be
categorised as that of a
biddingmarket,andhence
historical market shares
might not be completely
reflective of competition
infuturebids.Thenumber
ofcrediblecompetitors is
thus a better reflection
of competition in the
Relevant Market.
POST-TRANSACTION, THERE WILL STILL BE
NUMEROUS CREDIBLE COMPETITORS
TO THE
MERGED ENTITY, INCLUDING SAMSUNG, INTEL
AND TOSHIBA, IN THE RELEVANT MARKET.
[5]
CUSTOMERS ARE ABLE TO
SWITCHTOALTERNATIVE
SUPPLIERSWITHOUT SUBSTANTIAL SWITCHING
COSTS
, AND SOME CUSTOMERS ARE ABLE TO
PROCURE COMPONENTS TO DEVELOPTHEIR OWN
ENTERPRISE SSDS OR SPONSOR
NEWENTRANTS.
BARRIERS TO ENTRY ARE RELATIVELY LOW
AS ENTRY INTO THE RELEVANT MARKET
IN SINGAPORE IS NOT REGULATED AND
PROSPECTIVE ENTRANTS DO NOT NEED TO BE
PHYSICALLY PRESENT IN SINGAPORE.
1
2
3
29
CCS ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016
GUIDING YOU TO NEW HEIGHTS