Windows 7: Seagate Confirms Buyout Talks Underway

Dave76 · 16 Oct 2010

Quote:

No guarantee that a deal will happen at this time

The traditional hard drive market is down with many computers, tablets, and other electronic devices that need storage moving to faster and more rugged flash-based offerings. That means that sales of traditional HDDs are faltering due to increased demand on the market for tabletslike the iPad that are taking sales from the notebooks and netbooks.

The largest hard drive maker in the market is Seagate and the company has announced that it is in talks to be purchased by a private buyer and taken off the publicly traded market. Seagate is mum on exactly what company it is in talks with and this is not the first time that Seagate has entered talks with a buyer.

Reuters reports that TPG Capital and private equity firm Silver Lake held early talks with Seagate on a buyout previously, but that deal never materialized. Reuters cites a source familiar with the matter that claims Silver Lake is no longer involved in the talks and TPG is either working with another party on new buyout talks or is actively seeking a partner for a possible purchase of Seagate.

None of the involved parties has offered any comment on the talks so far. Seagate also notes that at this point there is no assurance that a deal will be accepted or offered. Seagate's board is evaluating the offer and other alternatives. This is the first time that Seagate has offered confirmation that talks of a buyout were underway.

Analyst Kaushik Roy from Wedbush Securities says that the reason private equity firms are eyeing Seagate is that its stock price is down to low levels. Roy figures that Seagate is looking good to equity firms that want to buy now and wait out the poor demand for HDDs because demand is expected to improve. Seagate is also taking steps to become a player in the SSD market with it and Samsung announcing a joint development deal recently.

Roy said, "The weakness in the stock is in end-demand and market related, it's not that the company is mis-executing. So private equity is looking at it and saying, geez, these are cheap stocks."

Source ...

LiquidSnak · 16 Oct 2010

Maybe they will get bought and their quality control division will get a budget. :P

Lee · 16 Oct 2010

This was bound to happen sooner then later. With the advent of SSD's , and faster Flash drives the HDD market was sure to start taking a big hit.

It seems funny that Seagate and Western Digital hadn't moved into the SSD market. Hind seek.

madtownidiot · 16 Oct 2010

I won't go anywhere near seagate HDDs after all the problems they had with the 7200.11 series

Tepid · 16 Oct 2010

I still recommend Seagate. Even with the problems they had.
With that episode behind them.
They still make some of the best drives available. With the best warranty.

If seagate does stop making drives. It will be a sad day for the market.
Unless the SSD market really starts slashing prices.

s31 · 16 Oct 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Lee

It seems funny that Seagate and Western Digital hadn't moved into the SSD market. Hind seek.

WD make SSD's, dont know about seagate

seekermeister · 16 Oct 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Lee

This was bound to happen sooner then later. With the advent of SSD's , and faster Flash drives the HDD market was sure to start taking a big hit.

It seems funny that Seagate and Western Digital hadn't moved into the SSD market. Hind seek.

In a fashion, they have. I saw a Seagate hybrid offered on TigerDirect a few days ago, which combined a SSD and hard drive together. On the surface, it sounded like a good idea, but reading the customer reviews gave the impression that it didn't obtain the performance one might expect from a SSD.

Zepher · 17 Oct 2010

Quote: Originally Posted by Tepid

I still recommend Seagate. Even with the problems they had.
With that episode behind them.
They still make some of the best drives available. With the best warranty.

If seagate does stop making drives. It will be a sad day for the market.
Unless the SSD market really starts slashing prices.

WD has one of the best warranties as well, and is relatively painless. I had to RMA a 2 year old 500GB Blue Drive a few months ago and it was quick and painless done right through their website.

Dave76 · 17 Oct 2010

Seagate is rumored to be starting to make SSDs for the OEM market.

Haven't seen much info on it.

Layback Bear · 17 Oct 2010

If the big hard drive companies start making large volumes of quality SSD the price should go down in a short period of time. Some company is going to do this because we want them big and priced right.

Windows 7: Seagate Confirms Buyout Talks Underway

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