Seagate Buys Maxtor

[LegendKiller]

I am pretty surprised about this, I hadn't heard a peep. I knew the industry was in for more consolidation.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10558135/


SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. - Seagate Technology, which makes computer hard drives used to store data, said Wednesday it agreed to acquire rival Maxtor Corp. for about $1.9 billion in stock.

Under the terms of the agreement, Maxtor shareholders will receive .37 shares of Seagate common stock for each Maxtor share they own. Based on Seagate’s closing stock price on Tuesday, the deal values each Maxtor share at about $7.25, a 60 percent premium to Maxtor’s Tuesday closing price of $4.52 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares of Maxtor, which is based in Milpitas, Calif., surged $2.13, or 47 percent, to $6.65 in pre-market trading after the news. The stock has traded in a 52-week range of $3.10 to $6.68.

[mcs328]

Wow...I thought Maxtor was in a better situation to buy Seagate.

[LegendKiller]

Seagate has been ripping it up the last 4 or so years. They streamlined quite a bit while they were privately owned, initiated a whole ton of Six Sigma projects to smooth out their distribution and manufacturing chain. They didn't have investors to worry about, except a private equity firm.

They also started pushing into retail during that time, something they had tried years before and failed miserably. When they went public in Dec 2002 they came roaring out of the gates and have done quite well. The new Nearline series are interesting (review soon).

[johnnymk]

Incredible!!

There was an article about a year ago explaining Seagate's modular approach to all of their hard drives and how that process was driving the manufacturing costs continually downward.

[LegendKiller]

Incredible!!

There was an article about a year ago explaining Seagate's modular approach to all of their hard drives and how that process was driving the manufacturing costs continually downward.

Yeah, they had a period in there that they were using a lot of different parts. For example, I was told that they did a survey in 2001 of how many screws they used in their entire lineup. They found that they had a few hundred! They have reduced that down to low double digits now. The Nearline series uses a lot of common parts with the Barracuda SATA series.

[Bires]

On one hand, Seagate = more 5-year warranties
On the other hand Maxtor = fast and reliable.

Hopefully quality will only increase.

[kimchicowboy]

i always thought seagates were built better than maxtors. am i wrong?

[zero2dash]

i always thought seagates were built better than maxtors. am i wrong?

That's been my experience at least...dunno if that's the 'general consensus' or not. :thumb:

I've had a lot of problems with Maxtors but the few Seagates that I've used have been rock solid dependable.

[bachviet]

On one hand, Seagate = more 5-year warranties
On the other hand Maxtor = fast and reliable.

Hopefully quality will only increase.
I don't think that's true. Over the last 3-4 years, the only hard drives that failed me were my two 160GB Maxtor. They also make more noise than those WD SE and Seagate drives. I'll stick with Seagate and WD for now.

[DarkFury]

On one hand, Seagate = more 5-year warranties
On the other hand Maxtor = fast and reliable.

Hopefully quality will only increase.
And hopefully the prices for these drives will stay down... :D

[shocky123]

woah.. I'm shocked.

hopefully Maxtor can now start integrating Quality into it's products...


~Kyle

[DaFunkyUnit]

so are they going to change their name to Maxgate?

[Bires]

I guess I'm just lucky. I have nearly a dozen Maxtors (mostly 80G's from Staples), and not a single one has failed on me. On top of that, they are all quiet, even with acoustic management turned off. I had four of them in RAID 0 arrays for more than two years. :shrug:

[Merlin]

I guess I'm just lucky. I have nearly a dozen Maxtors (mostly 80G's from Staples), and not a single one has failed on me. On top of that, they are all quiet, even with acoustic management turned off. I had four of them in RAID 0 arrays for more than two years. :shrug:
Sounds like somebody better knock on wood pretty damn quick after throwing out a statement like that.

[Jcranmer]

Out of all the hard drives I have used over the years, Maxtors seem to fail more then anything. I always use Western Digital's any more, but Seagate does make pretty good drives as well.

[Grimm]

I am amazed. Usualy it is the worse drive maker who buys the better drive maker. This is because the poorer quality drives cost less and therefore they sell more. However, in this case both manufacturers are pretty good. Seagate is the best as far as I am concerned. Never ever had a problem with a Seagate. I would expect Seagate to consolidate the manufacturing and brand some drives as Maxtor. They would most likely be identical to their Seagate counterparts.

[Jeffbx]

On one hand, Seagate = more 5-year warranties
On the other hand Maxtor = fast and reliable.

Hopefully quality will only increase.

Perhaps you've never used a Seagate Raptor? That's the closest you'll come to SCSI performance on an IDE drive.

I've had better luck with the Seagates in the past few years. The Raptors are blowing everyone else away in terms of speed, and the 5 year warranties are a nice bonus.

I'm actually a little surprised by this, but I guess it makes sense. I wonder if they'll keep the Maxtor name around.

[LegendKiller]

Perhaps you've never used a Seagate Raptor? That's the closest you'll come to SCSI performance on an IDE drive.

I've had better luck with the Seagates in the past few years. The Raptors are blowing everyone else away in terms of speed, and the 5 year warranties are a nice bonus.

I'm actually a little surprised by this, but I guess it makes sense. I wonder if they'll keep the Maxtor name around.


You mean Western Digital Raptors? 10k drives on IDE/SATA.

Seagate makes Barracuda and Cheetah drives ;).

[kimchicowboy]

Perhaps you've never used a Seagate Raptor? That's the closest you'll come to SCSI performance on an IDE drive.

I've had better luck with the Seagates in the past few years. The Raptors are blowing everyone else away in terms of speed, and the 5 year warranties are a nice bonus.

I'm actually a little surprised by this, but I guess it makes sense. I wonder if they'll keep the Maxtor name around.
/shaking head

oh, jeffbx, i thought you would've known those raptors are WD. hehehe.

[speedracer120]

I'm just wondering why Seagate still remains in Scotts Valley. Talk about being nearly off the beaten path.

[renovation]

i dont like maxtor drives i have 3 on my bench that are all doa . and all the wd i have 10 living wd some are newer and some older then those maxtor that all doa . im stick with western digital .
im wondering now that seagate owns maxtor if they will combine the 2 companys and elimitate work force ! im betting on a name change and other major changes down the road !

[Jeffbx]

You mean Western Digital Raptors? 10k drives on IDE/SATA.

Seagate makes Barracuda and Cheetah drives ;).



/shaking head

oh, jeffbx, i thought you would've known those raptors are WD. hehehe.



Oh man, I have no excuse except that I think I'm coming down with the flu. I've been doing stupid things all frikkin' day long! I have one of those silly things in my system at home, too! I need to go home & go to bed before I cause any more damage.


http://home.comcast.net/~jeff_bowden/pics/ownedstuck.jpg

[speedracer120]

What the freaking hell? Reminds me of the Mask.