It might also free up the flash business to make aggressive acquisitions without worrying quite as much about anti-trust from having a larger position in the ov

It might also free up the flash business to make aggressive acquisitions without worrying quite as much about anti-trust from having a larger position in the overall storage market due to the old HDD business (which is dominated by just three firms). The stand-alone HDD business will end up as an acquisition in the not-distant future (Toshiba, Seagate, etc. somebody will eat it).