Seagate Purchases Controlling Interest in LaCie
Seagate now controls 64.5-percent of LaCie, and is offering to purchase the remaining shares.
On Thursday Seagate Technology announced a deal to purchase a controlling interest in storage device manufacturer LaCie.
Seagate, along with Philippe Spruch, LaCie's chairman and chief executive, and his affiliate, have signed a share purchase agreement to buy all the shares of Spurch and his affiliate, representing 64.5-percent of the company's outstanding shares. The deal's provisional price was €4.05 a share, but may be adjusted downwards depending on the cash and debt position of LaCie at closing.
"As previously announced, Ricol Lasteyrie & Associés have been appointed as independent expert by the Board of Directors of LaCie on June 23, 2012," Seagate said on Thursday. "The transaction has already received clearance from the US Antitrust Authorities but remains subject to regulatory approval in France (approval of foreign investments by the Ministry of Finance) and Germany (antitrust filing) and to other customary closing conditions."
Seagate said that following the acquisition of the control of LaCie, the company will file an all-cash simplified tender offer on the remaining LaCie shares at a price of €4.05. This price shall be increased by 3-percent in the event that a squeeze-out procedure is implemented (as a result of the acquisition of 95-percent of the shares and voting rights), resulting in a maximum potential price per LaCie share of €4.17.
Seagate made its intentions known late last month, reporting that it was seeking to purchase a controlling stake -- 64.5-percent -- in consumer rival LaCie. Once acquired, LaCie Chief Executive Philippe Spruch would lead Seagate's consumer storage products organization. Reporting to him would be Patrick Connolly, who currently serves as vice president and general manager of Seagate’s retail group, as well as Pierre van der Elst, who currently serves as deputy general manager of LaCie.
"The transaction would combine two highly complementary product and technology portfolios, adding LaCie’s line of premium branded consumer storage solutions, network-attached storage solutions and software offerings to Seagate’s array of mainstream consumer storage products," the company said last month. "The combination would accelerate Seagate’s growth strategy in the expanding consumer storage market, particularly in Europe and Japan, and add strong engineering and software development capabilities, as well as relationships with several key retailers."
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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rohitbaran Soon, we will have complete duopoly at all stages in the HDD market, from manufacturer of barebones HDD to external HDD makers. Taiwan flood loss has been used by these companies (WD and Seagate) to gouge a lot of money from the world.Reply -
livebriand NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Let me guess - less competition = higher prices as usual, right?Reply -
SchizoFrog Oh come on people. Next you'll be suggesting that there was a conspiracy theory that caused the floods in the first place. You do realise that in nearly all technology there are only a very few companies that actually manufacture the products? Nearly all TV LCD and Plasma panels are made by only 5 major companies. The rest of the companies just use their panels and then relabel the badge.Reply
The CPU and GPU market has long proved that for development you only need 2 companies to compete... -
agnickolov For once this might actually result in lower prices on LaCie drives. They are already outrageously expensive...Reply -
chewy1963 rohitbaranSoon, we will have complete duopoly at all stages in the HDD market, from manufacturer of barebones HDD to external HDD makers. Taiwan flood loss has been used by these companies (WD and Seagate) to gouge a lot of money from the world.Reply
Umm, in less than 5 years, the HDD market will be nearly nil. SSDs should be well into the mainstream by then. -
thecolorblue chewy1963Umm, in less than 5 years, the HDD market will be nearly nil. SSDs should be well into the mainstream by then.Reply
no -
classzero livebriandNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Let me guess - less competition = higher prices as usual, right?With Seagate it means lower quality as well.Reply -
getochkn Lacie uses Seagate drives anyways or whatever is the cheapest for them. They make fancy cases and charge 4x as much it. They're big among Apple Fanboi's. They have to pull out their Lacie-external drive, likes its some big special drive to show off in a shiny case when really it's just an off the shelf HD in a case. Makes me laugh every time I see someone with one.Reply