SanDisk itself would be more amenable to a bid from Western Digital, which has strong free cash flow thanks to its cash cow hard-drive business, analysts said. Western Digital is also expected to receive a $4 billion cash infusion from China's state-backed Tsinghua Holdings Co Ltd [TSHUAA.UL], if the deal passes regulatory scrutiny in the United States. The investment could give Western Digital the firepower to speed up SanDisk's transition from a legacy hard drive maker to a company that makes efficient chips that run data centers.