CHINA'S Ministry of Commerce yesterday conditionally endorsed the acquisition of Samsung Electronics' hard disk drive business by the United States' Seagate Technology, clearing the path for the two brands' alignment in China.

The merger will have a negative impact on the interests of Chinese consumers as China has become one of the world's largest personal computer markets, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Although the merger will have an effect of excluding or limiting competition in the market, the ministry said it approved the deal after Seagate and Samsung agreed to come up with solutions to reduce the negative impact on competition.

The ruling came after two extensions of an anti-monopoly review of the acquisition since Seagate submitted its application in China more than six months ago.

During the review period, the ministry found that the global HDD market was highly concentrated, with the market shares of Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Toshiba and Samsung reaching 33 percent, 29 percent, 18 percent, 10 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

Seagate struck a deal with Samsung to buy Samsung's HDD business for US$1.375 million in April.