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Seagate Technology
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Seagate () is a major American manufacturer of hard drives and storage solutions, founded in 1979 and based in Scotts Valley, California. The company is registered in the Cayman Islands. Their hard drives are used in a variety of computers, from servers, desktops, and laptops to other consumer devices such as digital video recorders, Sony PlayStation 3, the Microsoft Xbox and the Creative Zen Micro line of digital audio players. Seagate is the world's largest computer hard disk manufacturer and the oldest independent hard disk maker still in operation.
History
Early historySeagate Technology was founded (under the name "Shugart Technology") by Alan Shugart (back from a sabbatical after getting pushed out of Shugart Associates) and Finis Conner. Their first product (released in 1980) was the ST-506, the first hard disk to fit the 5.25" form factor of the (by then famous) Shugart "mini-floppy" drive. The hard disk was a hit, and was later released in a 10-megabyte version, the ST-412. Seagate's history is filled with dramatic boom and bust cycles that typify the hard disk business.
In the early 1980s Seagate secured a contract as a major OEM supplier for the IBM XT, IBM's first personal computer to contain a hard disk. The volumes were large as IBM was the dominant supplier of PCs at the time and fueled Seagate's early growth. IBM was a fickle buyer and abruptly reduced its purchases from Seagate and began purchasing from other suppliers such as Miniscribe, IMI and others, creating financial havoc for Seagate. Seagate responded by establishing a powerful distribution channel that supplied hard disks for the millions of PCs hungry for hard disk storage. This was the first of many examples of Seagate turning a pending financial disaster into a huge success.
Through the 1980s, Seagate mainly sold simple hard disks which suited the price conscious distribution channel well. These devices were derivatives of (and improvements upon) the original ST-506 design; the ST-225 20 MB disk and ST-251 40 MB disk were the biggest sellers of this age, though they also sold faster hard disks that used voice coil technology. Because of this, Seagate disks were sometimes referred to as cheap and unreliable, a reputation not entirely undeserved because of the 225's and 251's usage of stepper motors to position the heads (a common practice in floppy-disk drives). However, Seagate disks were usually held in better regard than their competition (mainly MiniScribe, but also Microscience, Rodime, Tandon and Kalok). Seagate finally abandoned stepper motor designs in the early 1990s; the ST351A/X, an oddball 40 MB drive that could run on either an ATA or XT Attachment bus, was Seagate's last product to use a stepper.
Finis Conner left Seagate in early 1985. After one failed attempt to start his own company, and also briefly serving as CEO at CMI, in 1986 he founded Conner Peripherals, which originally specialised in small-form-factor drives for portable computers. Conner Peripherals also entered the tape drive business with its purchase of Archive Corporation. After ten years as an independent company, Conner rejoined Seagate in a 1996 merger.
In 1989, facing increased competition and margin pressure, Seagate turned another challenging financial situation into success by making an important and strategic acquisition of Control Data's MPI/Imprimis disk storage division. Seagate management had always believed that vertical integration of key components such as heads and disks was crucial for the long term survival of the company in the face of competition from deep-pocketed competitors such as IBM and certain Japanese suppliers. This move gave Seagate access to CDC's voice coil and disk-manufacturing patents, and importantly a competitive advanced head development capability. As well, the purchase provided access to a high end server customer base and the first 5400 RPM drives on the market (the CDC Elite series). Seagate quickly began to leverage vertical integration across its entire product line and once again became a dominant force in the business.
1990s2000sIn 1992, Seagate introduced the Barracuda, the industry's first hard disk with a 7200 RPM spindle speed. The company followed this with the Cheetah (the first 10,000 RPM disk) in 1996 and the X15 (15,000 RPM) in 2000. Seagate also introduced the Medalist Pro 7200 range, the first ATA disk with a 7200 RPM spindle, in 1997. As of 2005, Seagate started an innovation called the "pocket hard drive".
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Seagate management began to acquire storage software companies, believing that the relentless pressure on disc drive margins could be cushioned by diversification into software. The investment paid off as Seagate eventually sold its software division to Veritas and became one of the largest Veritas shareholders. Veritas stock soared and Seagate was able to convert its investment into much desired cash.
On December 21, 2005, Seagate confirmed the acquisition of rival HDD firm Maxtor. The all-stock deal was worth $1.9 billion. The firms said the combination will be 10-20% accretive on a cash EPS basis after the first full year of combined operations. The combined company will save around $300 million in operating expenses after the first full year of integration, Seagate said. The transaction was completed in May of 2006.
Corporate affairs
Seagate was traded for most of its life as a public company under the symbol SGAT on the NASDAQ system, then moved to the NYSE system under the symbol SEG in the 1990s. In 2000, the company was taken private by an investment group composed of Seagate management, Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group in a 3-way merger-spinoff with Veritas Software; Veritas merged with Seagate, which was bought by the investment group. Veritas was then immediately spun off to shareholders, gaining rights to Seagate Software Network and Storage Management Group (with products such as Backup Exec), as well as Seagate's shares in SanDisk and Dragon Systems. Seagate Software Information Management Group was renamed Crystal Decisions in May 2001. Seagate re-entered the public market in December 2002 on the NYSE as "STX."
Research and developmentSeagate's research and development wing is called Seagate Research. It was established in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in August 1998. On September 11, 2006, Seagate won the Technology Design Award for its "Hard-disk recording technology that dramatically increases the amount of information that can be stored on a single disk." This Technology is called "Perpendicular Recording".
Antecedents
Timeline of notable events- 1980 Seagate builds industry's first 5.25–inch hard disk
- 1986 Seagate co-founder Finis Conner leaves and starts rival Conner Peripherals
- 1989 Seagate acquires CDC's Imprimis division
- November 1992 Seagate introduces the first 7,200 RPM disk
- 1996 Conner Peripherals merged with Seagate.
- October 1997 Company introduces world's first Fibre Channel interface disk drive
- March 1998 Seagate produces one billionth magnetic recording head
- July 1998 - Seagate co-founder Alan Shugart resigns his position
- April 1999 Seagate ships its 250 millionth disk drive
- July 26, 2004 Seagate extends disk warranty to 5 years for all internal disk products
- Early 2005 Seagate's 5 GB pocket hard drive based on the Seagate ST1 hits the market
- June 2005 Seagate announces hardware-based full disk encryption drives
- December 21, 2005 Seagate announces $1.9 billion acquisition of rival HDD firm Maxtor
- January 9, 2006 Seagate named 2006 "Company of the Year" by Forbes Magazine
- January 16, 2006 Seagate begins shipping its first 2.5" hard disk using perpendicular recording technology, the Momentus 5400.3
- April 24, 2006 Seagate announces acquisition of ActionFront Data Recovery Labs
- April 26, 2006 Seagate releases a 750 GB hard disk, the first 3.5" consumer hard disk to utilize perpendicular recording
- May 18, 2006 Seagate completes acquisition of Maxtor.
- December 12, 2006 Alan Shugart, co-founder of Seagate Technology, , several weeks after undergoing open-heart surgery
- January 4, 2007 Seagate announces world's third 1 terabyte hard disk.
- March_12, 2007 Seagate becomes the first manufacturer to sell laptop hard drives with its new built-in Full disk encryption technology.
- April 22 2008 Seagate becomes the first manufacturer to sell 1 billion hard drives.
- July_10, 2008 - Seagate announces world's first 1.5 terabyte hard disk drive.
RecognitionIn December 2006 Seagate's Barracuda 750GB hard disk was 9th in PC World's 'The 20 Most Innovative Products of the Year'
Locations- Cayman Islands
- United States
Competitors
External links
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