By Keith Goldberg

Law360, New York (November 23, 2011, 1:27 PM ET) -- The European Union's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday approved Western Digital Technologies Inc.'s $4.3 billion acquisition of Hitachi Ltd.'s hard disk drive unit after the California-based storage company agreed to shed assets related to its 3.5-inch drives.

To gain regulatory clearance, Western Digital agreed to sell assets including a production plant and to transfer or license intellectual property rights, personnel and hard drive supply components to a buyer approved by the European Commission.

"Hard disk drives are a key component of computers and other sophisticated electronic devices...