Seagate completes purchase of LaCie in quest to become king of the hard drive hill

b1sgas · 08-04-12 at 09:04 PM

The final price may end up being more than the initially proposed $186 million, but Seagate has successfully acquired a controlling share of LaCie stocks. The provisional price of €4.05 per share could increase to €4.17 if Seagate manages to accumulate 95 percent of the company's stocks in the next six months. As of now, however, it hold just shy of 65 percent, enough to take control of the French manufacturer. With LaCie and its valuable consumer business under its belt and Samsung's SSD expertise, the move to reject a Western Digital take over is looking better and better. After all, consumer choice is the engine of capitalism and now Seagate has more than enough ammunition to take on WD and its Hitachi properties. Check out the PR after the break.

**Gandolph13** · 08-04-12 at 10:21 PM

I've always used Seagate hard drives and never had a problem with them. Combined with the near indestructible LaCie cases, they should make for great reliability.

Speaking of hard drives, what the heck is going on?
I looked on Ebay to purchase a new 1 or 2TB drive and there were only 3 listings in Aus????

**Noledox** · 08-04-12 at 10:51 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Gandolph13

I've always used Seagate hard drives and never had a problem with them. Combined with the near indestructible LaCie cases, they should make for great reliability.

Speaking of hard drives, what the heck is going on?
I looked on Ebay to purchase a new 1 or 2TB drive and there were only 3 listings in Aus????

It's probably still from the Thailand flood last year.

Personally, I think that Seagate is getting too close having a monopoly on hard drive manufacturing.

**L1b3rta** · 08-05-12 at 12:10 AM

I agree with Noledox, this is not healthy for the market. It was already bad enough for 2 companies to control the HDD market. Look what happened to the whole Thailand situation. Not to mention our future of even more lack of choice.

As for the HDD prices & availability, it's expected that the price will stay inflated and HDDs will remain to be on low supply till at least Q1 2013. And the prices should be back to normal by 2014. So yeah, this sucks. Especially for the archiveheads in the warez world. If only the manufacturers didn't rely mostly on 1 country to meet their demand.

evaevers · 08-05-12 at 01:39 AM

Another factor: the upcoming election. If Romney wins he will follow the playbook and crash the market since you make money when you buy, not sell. This will drive the prices down.

Loora · 08-05-12 at 01:48 AM

Actually I've read somewhere a few weeks back that prices are expected to stay high well into 2014 and only then will start to decline. Not so much due to meeting demand but due to SSD's dropping dramatically in price while increasing size and reliability to levels that rival mechanical drives.

That beeing said, it matters very little if Seagate or Western Digital can establish a monopoly on mechanical magnetic storage solutions simply because by the time the market would feel the effects of such a monopoly there would be very little demand left for such devices.

The current high price situation is inconvinient, yes. I'm cursing at Seagate/WD constantly because I am in dire need of additional HD space (lots of it, too) but knowing this will be over one way or another in ~2 years makes it somewhat easier to pay these outragous prices for now.

**L1b3rta** · 08-05-12 at 02:17 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by evaevers

Another factor: the upcoming election. If Romney wins he will follow the playbook and crash the market since you make money when you buy, not sell. This will drive the prices down.

lol

Quote: Originally Posted by Loora

The current high price situation is inconvinient, yes. I'm cursing at Seagate/WD constantly because I am in dire need of additional HD space (lots of it, too) but knowing this will be over one way or another in ~2 years makes it somewhat easier to pay these outragous prices for now.

It doesn't for me. 2 years is alot if you download huge amounts. I mean, HDD's are like 1/3 more these days. :(

**darklightv2** · 08-05-12 at 03:09 AM

I never liked Seagate much less after the Thailand flood when they lowered the warranty on their HDD to 2/3 of what it used to be.

b1sgas · 08-05-12 at 10:09 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by Gandolph13

I've always used Seagate hard drives and never had a problem with them. Combined with the near indestructible LaCie cases, they should make for great reliability.

Speaking of hard drives, what the heck is going on?
I looked on Ebay to purchase a new 1 or 2TB drive and there were only 3 listings in Aus????

That is probably caused by the flood of WD factory. Definitely it is not the best time to buy new HDD. Seagate raised prices by 50%.

**Omega_Prime** · 08-05-12 at 10:18 AM

Yeah Seagate have taken advantage of the flood and both have gained huge profits, more than they have gotten in years. This won't return to normal price very quickly.

Devspar_Zero · 08-05-12 at 07:15 PM

And to think that I used be able to get a 1 TB portable HDD just under 80 bucks...

**Gogomonkeygo** · 08-05-12 at 11:21 PM

Sweet! Just got a Momentus XT Hybrid HDD and it perfroms pretty damn good.

08-05-12 at 12:10 AM	#4
L1b3rta Guru Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 5,985	I agree with Noledox, this is not healthy for the market. It was already bad enough for 2 companies to control the HDD market. Look what happened to the whole Thailand situation. Not to mention our future of even more lack of choice. As for the HDD prices & availability, it's expected that the price will stay inflated and HDDs will remain to be on low supply till at least Q1 2013. And the prices should be back to normal by 2014. So yeah, this sucks. Especially for the archiveheads in the warez world. If only the manufacturers didn't rely mostly on 1 country to meet their demand. Last edited by L1b3rta; 08-05-12 at 12:13 AM.

08-05-12 at 02:17 AM	#7
L1b3rta Guru Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 5,985	Quote: Originally Posted by evaevers Another factor: the upcoming election. If Romney wins he will follow the playbook and crash the market since you make money when you buy, not sell. This will drive the prices down. lol Quote: Originally Posted by Loora The current high price situation is inconvinient, yes. I'm cursing at Seagate/WD constantly because I am in dire need of additional HD space (lots of it, too) but knowing this will be over one way or another in ~2 years makes it somewhat easier to pay these outragous prices for now. It doesn't for me. 2 years is alot if you download huge amounts. I mean, HDD's are like 1/3 more these days. :( Last edited by L1b3rta; 08-05-12 at 02:22 AM.

08-04-12 at 10:21 PM	#2
Gandolph13 Legendary Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Australia (GMT+10) Posts: 12,306	I've always used Seagate hard drives and never had a problem with them. Combined with the near indestructible LaCie cases, they should make for great reliability. Speaking of hard drives, what the heck is going on? I looked on Ebay to purchase a new 1 or 2TB drive and there were only 3 listings in Aus????

08-04-12 at 10:51 PM	#3
Noledox Bad command or file name Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Terra Incognita Posts: 2,709	Quote: Originally Posted by Gandolph13 I've always used Seagate hard drives and never had a problem with them. Combined with the near indestructible LaCie cases, they should make for great reliability. Speaking of hard drives, what the heck is going on? I looked on Ebay to purchase a new 1 or 2TB drive and there were only 3 listings in Aus???? It's probably still from the Thailand flood last year. Personally, I think that Seagate is getting too close having a monopoly on hard drive manufacturing.

08-05-12 at 01:39 AM	#5
evaevers Newcomer Join Date: Nov 2011 Posts: 69	Another factor: the upcoming election. If Romney wins he will follow the playbook and crash the market since you make money when you buy, not sell. This will drive the prices down.

08-05-12 at 01:48 AM	#6
Loora Apprentice Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 437	Actually I've read somewhere a few weeks back that prices are expected to stay high well into 2014 and only then will start to decline. Not so much due to meeting demand but due to SSD's dropping dramatically in price while increasing size and reliability to levels that rival mechanical drives. That beeing said, it matters very little if Seagate or Western Digital can establish a monopoly on mechanical magnetic storage solutions simply because by the time the market would feel the effects of such a monopoly there would be very little demand left for such devices. The current high price situation is inconvinient, yes. I'm cursing at Seagate/WD constantly because I am in dire need of additional HD space (lots of it, too) but knowing this will be over one way or another in ~2 years makes it somewhat easier to pay these outragous prices for now.

08-05-12 at 03:09 AM	#8
darklightv2 Lost One Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Beyond your reach. Posts: 1,407	I never liked Seagate much less after the Thailand flood when they lowered the warranty on their HDD to 2/3 of what it used to be.

08-05-12 at 10:09 AM	#9
b1sgas Newcomer Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: tehparadox planet Posts: 65	Quote: Originally Posted by Gandolph13 I've always used Seagate hard drives and never had a problem with them. Combined with the near indestructible LaCie cases, they should make for great reliability. Speaking of hard drives, what the heck is going on? I looked on Ebay to purchase a new 1 or 2TB drive and there were only 3 listings in Aus???? That is probably caused by the flood of WD factory. Definitely it is not the best time to buy new HDD. Seagate raised prices by 50%.

08-05-12 at 10:18 AM	#10
Omega_Prime Autobot Supreme Commander Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 3,557	Yeah Seagate have taken advantage of the flood and both have gained huge profits, more than they have gotten in years. This won't return to normal price very quickly.

08-05-12 at 07:15 PM	#11
Devspar_Zero Novice Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 155	And to think that I used be able to get a 1 TB portable HDD just under 80 bucks...

08-05-12 at 11:21 PM	#12
Gogomonkeygo LargeHard Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe Posts: 895	Sweet! Just got a Momentus XT Hybrid HDD and it perfroms pretty damn good.