shares of western digital corp s wdc were surging 10 in premarket trading tuesday after elliott investment management called for the company to split its business in two and offered at least 1 billion in capital to help with a separation elliott issued a letter to western digitals board of directors saying that while the company has great potential in both its harddisk drive and flash businesses it has underperformedoperationally financially and strategically elliotts view is that a full separation of western digitals flash business could help its stock climb to 100 a share by the end of 2023 it closed monday at 5392 the investment company said it was offering at least 1 billion of incremental equity capital for the flash business at an enterprise value of 17 billion to 20 billion which western digital could use to facilitate a spinoff or as equity financing to support a sale or merger this investment proposal underscores our conviction on the merits of a separation as well as our belief in the longterm prospects of the flash business elliott said in its letter while calling for a full strategic review of its proposal elliott is currently a western digital shareholder with a stake of about 1 billion or over 6 of the companys shares western digital shares have fallen 23 over the past 12 months as the sp 500 spx has dipped about 1