Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity
    • Networking
    • PC Hardware
    • Storage

    Report: Chinese Company Interested in Buying Seagate

    By
    Chris Preimesberger
    -
    August 25, 2007
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      The New York Times reported Aug. 25 that an unnamed Chinese technology company has shown interest in acquiring disk drive maker Seagate Technology, which owns about 30 percent of the world market share in the sector.

      The possibility of such a transaction raises concerns among U.S. officials about potential national security risks regarding the transferal of such industry-leading high technology to China, the Times reported.

      Seagate has been by far the most dominant disk drive maker in the world for several years. On Jan. 23, the company, based in Scotts Valley, Calif., reported the industrys first $3 billion quarter to go with whopping revenue growth of 30 percent over 2006.

      The company on June 25 again demonstrated its market dominance when it introduced what it called “the first second-generation,” low-energy-use, 1TB-capacity storage hard drive—the Barracuda product line—for a variety of enterprise and desktop uses. It is also now shipping the industrys first encrypted laptop drives.

      Western Digital, in Lake Forest, Calif., is the other U.S.-based disk drive maker.

      Seagate CEO William Watkins told Times reporter John Markoff about the Chinese companys approach in an interview. He told Markoff that Seagate was not for sale, but that if a high enough premium were offered to shareholders it would be difficult to stop.

      Government officials also told the Times that while disk drives do not fall under a list of export-controlled technologies, moves to purchase a U.S. disk drive company would require a security review by federal officials.

      The newspaper quoted one industry executive involved in classified government advisory groups as saying that, “Seagate would be extremely sensitive … I do not think anyone in the U.S. wants the Chinese to have access to the controller chips for a disk drive. One never knows what the Chinese could do to instrument the drive.”

      Charles King, a veteran IT analyst with Pund-IT in Hayward, Calif., told eWEEK that as globalization continues, he believes that many countries have thoughts and ambitions of overtaking the United States in IT development.

      “Could Seagate give a foreign purchaser a leg up in a highly technical market? Sure, but the disk drive sector, particularly the consumer space where Seagate is strongest, is moving rapidly toward commodity status. Im not sure how much serious innovation we can honestly expect from those technologies,” King said.

      Click here to read about Seagates low-energy, 1TB hard drive.

      King added that there were similar comments when IBM sold both its PC/notebook division to Lenovo and its disk drive group to Hitachi, but the results have been much more positive than the critics claimed.

      Brian Babineau, an IT analyst with Enterprise Strategy Group in Milford, Mass., told eWEEK that it is ignorant if we do not believe that other non-U.S. based countries may be better at producing certain technology products that domestic businesses.

      “IBM certainly believed that it could not compete in the PC business as successfully as many of its competitors and chose to sell it to the highest bidder; it just so happened that Lenovo was that company,” Babineau said.

      These types of scenarios create competition and drive innovation in America, Babineau said.

      “If we want jobs to remain here, we need to be challenged to build a better mousetrap. Without those challenges, we become complacent and we wont produce quality products anyway,” he said. “We should only be alarmed at the economic impact of too many American technology jobs being lost to these types of acquisitions.”

      Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and small business storage hardware and software.

      Chris Preimesberger
      https://www.eweek.com/author/cpreimesberger/
      Chris J. Preimesberger is Editor Emeritus of eWEEK. In his 16 years and more than 5,000 articles at eWEEK, he distinguished himself in reporting and analysis of the business use of new-gen IT in a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, data center systems, storage, edge systems, security and others. In February 2017 and September 2018, Chris was named among the 250 most influential business journalists in the world (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-250-business-journalists/) by Richtopia, a UK research firm that used analytics to compile the ranking. He has won several national and regional awards for his work, including a 2011 Folio Award for a profile (https://www.eweek.com/cloud/marc-benioff-trend-seer-and-business-socialist/) of Salesforce founder/CEO Marc Benioff--the only time he has entered the competition. Previously, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press since 1983 and resides in Silicon Valley.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.
      Get the Free Newsletter!
      Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
      This email address is invalid.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Latest News

      Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

      James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
      I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
      Read more
      Applications

      Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

      James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
      I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
      Read more
      IT Management

      Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

      James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
      Read more
      Applications

      Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

      James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
      I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×