Revealing that it wishes to become a bigger player in the European and Japanese consumer storage markets, Seagate has announced that it intends to buy a majority share in the French firm, LaCie, of 64.5 percent.
In a way, the move is a no-brainer for Seagate, with the firm netting in around a billion pounds per year, a 64.5 per cent share in LaCie, worth around £119 million, is pocket change for a long-term acquisition. With the purchase, Seagate will gain access to a firm that has traditionally specialised in providing products for Apple Macs, which has led to some fairly stylish yet affordable products, better able to penetrate markets outside of the US.
"With the proliferation of devices and content being shared and stored today, consumer demand for high-quality branded storage solutions continues to grow," stated Philippe Spruch, LaCie chairman and CEO. "We are excited about the potential for this combination to benefit customers and employees by creating significant scale and opening up new markets. We look forward to making the resources of a much larger company available to our customers around the world."
It's clear the the two firms are right for each other; aside from LaCie already bundling Seagate drives with its existing product line-up, Seagate can bring LaCie products to the wider market and in numbers, whilst LaCie can provide the well established consumer brand that Seagate is looking for.
