SanDisk posts surprise revenue rise on demand from data centres

(Reuters) - Data storage products maker SanDisk Corp reported a surprise rise in quarterly revenue, its first increase in more than a year, helped by strong demand for its chips used in solid-state drives and data centres.

Shares of the company, which is being bought by Western Digital Corp , were up about 1 percent at $76.58 in after-market trading on Wednesday.

Revenue from its enterprise business, which makes chips for data centres, rose 15 percent in the first quarter ended April 3.

The company has been ramping up production of more efficient and higher-margin 3D NAND chips and solid-state drives as average selling prices for NAND flash chips decline.

SanDisk's NAND flash chips are widely used in smartphones, cameras and tablets to store music, pictures and other data.

The company's net income doubled to $78.4 million, or 37 cents per share.

Excluding items, the company earned 82 cents per share, handily beating the average analyst estimate of 55 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company's total revenue rose 2.5 percent to $1.37 billion, above analysts' average estimate of $1.21 billion.

Western Digital's $15.78 billion acquisition of SanDisk is expected to close in the second quarter.

(Reporting by Kshitiz Goliya in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti Pandey and Sriraj Kalluvila)