The veteran UK disk drive technology company Nordiko Ltd is to be jointly acquired by giant Japanese precision instrument maker Shimadzu and Marubun Corp, the Japanese electronics, computer and semiconductor manufacturing company. The two will pay 22m pounds sterling for the Havent, Hampshire-based company, which is one of the largest suppliers of thin-film deposition machines used by the computer disk drive industry. Havant, Hampshire-based Nordiko was formed in 1972 and first entered the Japanese market in 1993. It has machines installed at most of the worldÆs biggest hard disk drive production plants, including eight in Japan and five in the US. ItÆs currently working on GMR giant magnetoresistive film technology. Shimadzu will take about 55 percent of the firm, and Marubun about 33 percent, with Nordiko retaining the rest.
