Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Seagate To Acquire Maxtor

Scotts Valley California-based Seagate, a maker of hard disk drives, said this morning that it is acquiring Maxtor, which is based in Milpitas California and maintains operations in Longmont, Colorado. Seagate said that it will pay approximately $1.9B for outstanding Maxtor stock. Seagate said that it expects to save approximately $300M in annual operating expenses from the transaction. Seagate's CEO, Bill Watkins, has stated that it expects layoffs on both sides, although the firm did not specify how Maxtor's Longmont plant would be affected. The companies said that they expect the transaction to be complete in the second half of 2006. Maxtor's Longmont plant provides development of the firm's ATA-based drives for personal, home, and business uses.