The European Commission Monday cleared Japanese electronic manufacturer Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) to buy Fujitsu Ltd.'s (6702.TO) hard disk drive business for some JPY30 billion.

The deal will make Toshiba the world's biggest supplier of one of the most commonly used drives for laptop computers.

The acquisition will give Toshiba's 2.5-inch hard-disk-drive operations a market share of more than 30%, surpassing Hitachi Ltd. (HIT) and Western Digital Corp. (WDC), which each hold 22%, according to a Fujitsu spokesman.

-By Peppi Kiviniemi, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 (0)2 741 1483; peppi.kiviniemi@dowjones.com

(Yuzo Yamaguchi contributed to this item.)