Seagate Technology

Performance indicators

The fiscal year ends in early July.

2023: Loss of $529 million

At the end of the fiscal year, closed on June 30, 2023, the revenue of Seagate Technology Holdings amounted to approximately $7.38 billion. This is about 37% less than the result for the previous fiscal year, when the hard drive manufacturer received $11.66 billion. Such data are provided in a report released on July 26, 2023.

In fiscal 2023, Seagate made net losses of $529 million. For comparison: a year earlier, the company showed net profit at $1.65 billion. Losses in terms of one security were recorded at $2.56.

The total storage capacity Seagate shipped during the closed fiscal year was approximately 441 Ebytes. By the end of the 2023 fiscal year, supplies in capacitive equivalent collapsed by 41% on an annualized basis. The average capacity of hard drives sold was 6.4 TB, while a year earlier this figure was 7.8 TB.

The report says that the demand for storage devices in the client and consumer segments has decreased due to seasonal trends and the current macroeconomic situation. The corporate sector has seen a decrease in hard drive orders from cloud platform operators. In addition, enterprises in a crisis reduce the cost of developing their information infrastructures.

It also follows from the materials of the American manufacturer that in fiscal year 2023 Seagate began supplying Corvault storage systems, which use the latest hard drives made using heated magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. Mass deliveries of such drives are planned to be organized at the end of the 2023 calendar year. The capacity of the first HAMR devices will be 32 TB, and in the future there will be 36, 40 and 50 TB drives.^[1]

2020: Revenue - $10.68 billion, profit - $1.31 billion

Seagate ended fiscal 2021 with revenue of $10.68 billion versus $10.51 billion a year earlier. Net profit during this time increased from $1 billion to $1.31 billion.

One of the main factors in the financial rise of Seagate is associated with the new Chia cryptocurrency, which, unlike many other cryptocurrencies, is mined not using video cards, but using hard drives. Chia's algorithms are not tied to computing mechanisms, but to storing data on the blockchain. In this case, much less energy is spent compared to the technology, but very high capacity storage is required. In addition, Seagate has been helped by rising IT costs, cloud computing costs, and strong drive demand.

At the end of 2021, Seagate delivered hard drives with a total capacity of 535 Ebytes against 409.9 Ebytes a year earlier. The average capacity of the drive sold was 4.8 TB, an increase from 3.7 TB in 2020. Approximately 70% of revenue came from the supply of products directly to manufacturers, 18% - to distributors, 12% - to retail.

It also follows from the company's statements that the company's revenue in the mass capacity storage segment (this includes nearline solutions, equipment for photo and video systems, as well as NAS network devices) in 2021 financial year approached $7 billion. These products accounted for 65% of the manufacturer's turnover against 57% in 2020 to the financial year and 38% in 2017. Between 2017 and 2021, Seagate's revenues from the sale of mass capacity drives increased by an average of 14% per year.

By the beginning of July 2021, Seagate's total debt amounted to $5.14 billion against $4.18 billion a year earlier. Net debt during this time increased from $2.45 billion to $3.93 billion, and the volume of own funds and their equivalents decreased from $1.72 billion to $1.21 billion.^[2]

History

2025: Selling used hard drives under the guise of new

At the end of January 2025, information appeared that Seagate was caught selling former hard drives under the guise of new ones. Moreover, some such drives previously worked tens of thousands of hours.

According to the Heise.de resource, one of the consumers initially spoke about the problem. He purchased two 14 TB Seagate Exos hard drives, which immediately seemed somewhat strange to him: they had minor scuffs, but S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics did not reveal any problems. Later, the buyer conducted a more thorough test of Field Accessible Reliability Metrics (FARM), which showed that one of the drives at the time of purchase had already worked about 10 thousand hours (417 days without stopping), and the second - 15 thousand hours (625 days).

Seagate sells used hard drives under the guise of new

It is noted that used discs were sold under the guise of new official Seagate dealer. The buyer returned the drives to the seller and decided to purchase two 16 TB Seagate Exos from another store. But, as it turned out, these drives were previously in operation: each of them worked a total of about 22 thousand hours, which is equivalent to 917 days. Seagate itself reported that all four drives were OEM products and were not intended for retail. Such drives are not covered by the standard retail five-year warranty.

Subsequently, there were complaints from about 50 more buyers who, under the guise of completely new hard drives, sold the previously used Seagate devices. Most users reported that they had a used Exos device with a capacity of 16 TB, and some had a 12 TB model. Moreover, such products were sold in more than ten different stores. Thus, as noted, the problem can be widespread.^[3]

2022

Laying off several thousand employees as PC demand collapses

On October 26, 2022, Seagate Technology Holdings announced its intention to restructure and reduce the staff. This decision is associated with the current macroeconomic situation, a decrease in sales of personal computers (PCs) and uncertainties in the business sphere.

According to Gartner estimates, PC shipments on the global market in the third quarter of 2022 amounted to about 68.0 million units. This is 19.5% less compared to the third quarter of 2021 (84.4 million units). In this regard, sales of drives for the consumer market, in particular, hard drives, fell sharply .

In such a situation, Seagate is forced to adjust production volumes and annual capital expenditures. The company's board of directors reportedly approved the reorganization plan on October 24, 2022. It includes a reduction in the number of personnel around the world by about 3 thousand employees, or 8% of the total number of employees. In addition, other measures will be taken to reduce costs.

The restructuring plan is expected to be largely completed by the end of the second quarter of fiscal 2023 (to be completed in December 2022). Related costs will range from $60 million to $70 million in the form of employee severance benefits and other lump sum payments. In the future, this initiative will provide savings of approximately $110 million per year.

The company emphasizes that it will continue to work to achieve its goals in the field of creating new generation drives. We are talking about hard drives with a capacity of 30 TB or more using heated magnetic recording (HAMR) technology. This technique reduces the size of the magnetic region for storing each bit of information. Thus, the data recording density increases and the capacity of the entire drive as a whole increases.^[4]

Termination of shipment to Russia without announcement of reasons

The American manufacturer of hard drives and data storage solutions Seagate stopped shipping almost as soon as the military operation in Ukraine began, follows from the speech of the general director of this company Dave Mosley (Dave Mosley) at Morgan Stanley's Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in March^[5]Moreover, judging by his speech, we are talking not only about Russia, but also about the whole of Eastern Europe.

The company did not publish an official announcement of the suspension of shipments, unlike other technology brands that decided to stop or restrict their activities in Russia. And while many of the technology brands have publicly linked their demarche from the country with the support of Ukraine, the CEO of Seagate in his speech speaks of something else - the risk of insolvency. In the same context, the head of Seagate also mentioned currency instability.

According to Dave Mosley, the main focus of the company in the affected region is people: employees, contract performers. You need to make sure they are safe. Some families find themselves separated, the company should help them be together again, says Mosley.

And as for demand in the long term, I don't care. Russia and even Eastern Europe usually account for only a couple of percent of our revenue, - added the CEO of Seagate.

Regarding the impact of the situation in Ukraine on the company's global business, Dave Mosley noted that earlier transportation and logistics were greatly affected by COVID-19, which increased costs, and this trend is now maintained due to rising oil prices due to interruptions in Russia. The CEO added that the company has not yet passed these costs on to buyers.

2021: US senators accuse company of supplying Huawei discs in defiance of Huawei

Seagate violated export restrictions by continuing to sell hard drives to Huawei Technologies Co. after the Commerce Department tightened export restrictions last year, U.S. Senate Republicans argue in October 2021.

Seagate Technology Holdings delivered a significant portion of the Chinese company's annual hard drive purchases worth about dollars US 800 million.

The company did not apply for a license from the Commerce Department and continued deliveries after its competitors halted sales to Huawei.

The report calls for an end to Huawei's unlicensed technology shipments, as well as a call for the Commerce Department to more effectively enforce restrictions on Huawei and "punish past shipments in violation of this provision."

2020: Slight sales growth - up to $10.51 billion

Seagate ended fiscal 2020 with sales of $10.51 billion, slightly more than a year ago of $10.39 billion. In 2019, revenue decreased. Net profit during this time halved to $1 billion. The reporting 12-month period for the hard drive manufacturer (HDD) was closed on July 3, 2020 of the calendar year.

Most of Seagate's revenues are still generated by direct contracts with manufacturers - they accounted for almost 72% of the company's revenue at the end of fiscal 2020, an increase of 2 percentage points. Distributors are in second place in terms of revenue share (share in revenue - 17%), retailers are in third place (11%).

After a long drop in sales, Seagate continues to hide the quantitative supply of drives, limited to capacity indicators. In the 2020 reporting year, the American vendor shipped HDD with a total capacity of 409.9 Ebytes, while a year earlier the release was 347.4 Ebytes. The average volume of the device sold was 3.7 TB, which is more than the figure for the 2019 financial year (2.5 TB).

Computer solutions generate nearly 20% of the manufacturer's revenue, and most of the revenue comes from corporate products. Annual deliveries of the most popular drives in the mass market increased by 25% and provided the company with 57% of HDD sales revenue.

It also follows from the Seagate financial report that in 2020 the company returned a total of $1.5 billion to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividend payments. Free cash flow was equal to $1.1 billion.

On the day of publication of financial statements - July 28, 2020 - Seagate shares fell by more than 2% by the close of the exchange, and at electronic trading their price decreased by another 8.4%. Quotes sank due to the fact that the company's revenues fell far short of Wall Street expectations.^[6]

2019: Revenue drops to $10.39 billion as HDD sales decline

In fiscal 2019, Seagate's revenue amounted to $10.39 billion, down from $11.18 billion compared to 2018.

This decline is due to a decrease in sales of hard drives During the 12-month reporting period, closed on June 28, 2019, HDD sales decreased to $9.62 billion from $10.33 billion a year earlier. The rest of the company's revenue comes from corporate DSS, solid-state drives and other solutions - annual revenue in this direction reached $771 million. In fiscal 2018, this figure was measured at $855 million.

The main source of sales of Seagate products is direct contracts with manufacturers - they accounted for almost 70% of the company's revenue at the end of fiscal 2019. Distributors are in second place in terms of revenue share, and retail chains are in third place.

Seagate stopped disclosing the quantitative supply of drives, limited to capacity indicators. In fiscal 2019, the company shipped HDD with a total capacity of 347.4 Ebait, while a year earlier the release was 338.1 Ebait. The average volume of the device sold was 2.5 TB. Computer solutions generate almost 20% of revenue for the manufacturer, and most of the revenue (40%) comes from corporate products.

For fiscal year 2019, Seagate delivered hard drives for desktops and laptops in the amount of 65.4 Ebytes, and the average capacity of such a drive was 2.4 Ebytes.

Seagate's fiscal 2019 net income nearly doubled to more than $2.01 billion. True, a deferred tax discount of $702 million affected here.

By the end of June 2019, $2.2 billion of cash and equivalents had accumulated in Seagate's accounts. Cash flows from core activities for the year amounted to $1.8 billion, the company returned $713 million in dividends to investors and bought back 21 million ordinary shares in the amount of $963 million.^[7]

2018: Revenue growth to $11.2 billion

Seagate ended fiscal year 2018 with revenue of $11.2 billion, while a year earlier it was measured at $10.8 billion. The company's revenue returned to growth. Net profit in comparison with these periods jumped from $772 million in 2017 to $1.2 billion a year later.

The hard drive manufacturer still has high operating costs - almost $9.6 billion at the end of fiscal year 2018.

Seagate stopped disclosing drive sales after years of decline. The financial statements only say that the total capacity of HDDs delivered in the 12-month period ended June 29, 2018 reached 338 Ebait against 263 Ebait a year earlier.

The average capacity of shipped storage devices for the year increased from 1.8 to 2.2 TB. In fiscal 2016, the figure was measured at 1.4 TB. The average cost of Seagate-branded hard drives sold increased from $66 in fiscal 2017 to $69 in 2018.

Sales of corporate solutions brought the company 46% of revenue. The sale of products for consumer electronics accounted for about 27% of the turnover, and the share of devices for laptops and desktops was 21%.

Most of Seagate's revenue - 72% - came from OEM contracts in fiscal 2018 to supply products to manufacturers of computers and other equipment. The shares of retail and distribution channel amounted to 11% and 17%, respectively.

While Seagate's earnings came in above Wall Street expectations, the company's stock fell in value after the release of its financial results. The likely market backlash follows the resignation of the company's chief financial officer, David Morton, who went to work for Tesla Motors.

In fiscal 2018, Seagate paid $726 million in dividends and made a $361 million share buyback.^[8]

2017: Profit growth triples after mass layoffs

On July 25, 2017, Seagate released its annual financial statement. The company's profits jumped three times after massive job cuts.

According to the results of the reporting 12-month period, the end of which fell on June 30, 2017, Seagate's revenue amounted to $10.77 billion against $11.16 billion a year earlier. Net income for the period jumped from 248 million to 772 million. dollars

The jump in profits occurred due to the fact that in the previous fiscal year Seagate spent a lot of money on restructuring, in which more than 8 thousand working positions were liquidated. Due to personnel cleaning, the company hoped to save about $100 million a year.

The negative impact on Seagate's revenues is also the weak demand for personal computers, for which most of the company's products are designed. According to analysts, in Gartner 2016, shipments of desktops and laptops on a global scale amounted to 269.7 million units, down 6.2% compared to 2015. The annual decline in the PC market turned out to be the fifth in a row.

Interestingly, after a long drop in hard drive shipments, Seagate stopped publishing information about the number of HDDs produced. The last time such data were released following the results of the second quarter of fiscal year 2017: during this period, storage shipments decreased to 39.9 million units from 46 million units a year earlier.

The annual report only reports that the total capacity of the released HDDs was 262.6 Ebait against 234 Ebait at the end of fiscal year 2016. The average hard drive capacity sold is about 1.8 TB.

Following the release of its financial results, Seagate shares fell 16.5% in value by the Nasdaq exchange's July 25, 2017 close. Despite the drop in quotations, the company's CFO David Morton told analysts at the conference that Seagate "is still far ahead of the competition."^[9]

2016

Profit drop of 7 times

In early August 2016, Seagate Technology published its annual accounts. The company's profit shrank sevenfold due to restructuring costs, involving, in particular, massive layoffs.

At the end of fiscal year 2016, closed on July 1, 2016 calendar, Seagate's net profit amounted to $248 million against $1.7 billion a year earlier. Revenue for this period decreased by 19% to $11.2 billion.

During the reporting 12-month period, Seagate received cash flow from operating activities in the amount of $1.7 billion and paid dividends in the amount of $727 million. By the beginning of July 2016, about $1.1 billion in the form of cash and their equivalents, as well as short-term investments, had accumulated in the accounts of the American vendor against $2.5 billion a year earlier.

I am proud of our strong operating results and financial discipline amid the dynamic technological shifts taking place in our market, "says Seagate Chairman and CEO Steve Luczo. - I am confident in the long-term stability of the company and its prosperity in a world in which huge amounts of data are created and the demand for capacious storage is growing, due to the development of new technologies and the deployment of cloud infrastructure.

Seagate's profits are being squeezed by restructuring costs, which are cutting jobs. In July 2016, the company announced the dismissal of 6,500 people in addition to 1,600 work positions, the liquidation of which was announced in June. Due to personnel cleaning, Seagate expects to save about $100 million annually.

In addition to restructuring costs, a weak demand for computers, for which most of the company's products are designed, has a negative impact on Seagate's revenues. In 2016, Fingoda delivered 169 million hard drives to the global market against 211.3 million units a year earlier.^[10]

Reduction of 6,500 people or 14% of the state

On July 11, 2016, Seagate Technology reported cutting four times as many jobs as originally planned. The company is laying off people due to a financial downturn linked to falling computer sales in the world.

According to Seagate, by the end of the 2017 fiscal year, which ends in July 2017 calendar, the company will reduce the total number of personnel by 6,500 people, which corresponds to 14% of the state. In June 2016, the vendor announced plans to lay off 1,600 people.

According to The Wall Street Journal, before the announced liquidation of working positions in Seagate, about 45 thousand people worked full time. A company representative told the publication that personnel restructuring will become part of the manufacturer's overall strategy to reduce costs in many divisions.

The largest share of job cuts announced on July 11, 2016 will come from Seagate's manufacturing facilities, located mainly in Malaysia and China. In addition, the layoffs will affect factories located in the United States and Great Britain.^[11]

The company's expenses for personnel restructuring are estimated at $164 million, which will be spent in fiscal 2017. Earlier, Seagate said that thanks to layoffs, it will be possible to save about $100 million annually - by reducing operating costs by $52 million and reducing the cost of sales by $48 million.

Seagate is forced to downsize as the company's sales fall amid weakening demand for personal computers. According to IDC analysts, the volume of the global PC market in the second quarter of 2016 fell by 4.5% compared to the same period in 2015 - to 62.4 million units. At the same time, experts expected a stronger regression - by 7.4%.

Cutting 1,600 employees or 3% of staff

In late June 2016, Seagate Technology reported massive layoffs caused by a desire to cut costs and overcome falling demand for personal computers.

According to The Wall Street Journal, citing a Seagate statement made on June 29, 2016, the company will cut about 1,600 jobs, which corresponds to 3% of the state. In September 2015, Seagate announced plans to eliminate 1,050 work positions and attributed this to weak demand for the products that the company produces.

Thanks to the announced personnel cleaning, the hard drive manufacturer expects to reduce annual costs by $100 million. However, first he will need to spend about $62 million on restructuring (including the payment of benefits to dismissed employees), most of this amount will be allocated in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016, which will end in early July 2016 calendar.

Seagate is forced to optimize costs due to its ongoing financial decline. In the third quarter of fiscal 2016, the company's revenue decreased for the fifth time in a row and losses of $21 million were recorded, which the vendor blamed on "several demand factors in the near future."

The drop in Seagate's revenue is largely due to the poor state of the PC market. Deliveries of these devices on a global scale in January-March 2016 amounted to 64.8 million units, a decrease of 9.6% compared to the same period last year. By that period, the volume of the computer industry was already declining six quarters in a row, and in the first quarter of 2016, shipments of desktops and laptops were below 65 million for the first time since 2007, according to analysts. Gartner

Seagate is cutting not only ordinary staff, but also top managers. So, in October 2015, the company changed its CFO, and in June 2016 - President and Operating Director.^[12]

2015

Profit growth thanks to corporate HDDs

On July 31, 2015, Seagate released its financial year 2015 results. The hard drive maker's profits were boosted by growing sales of enterprise-grade HDDs, while revenue was flat.

According to the results of the 12-month reporting period ended July 3, 2015, Seagate's net profit amounted to $1.74 billion against $1.57 billion a year earlier. Sales reached $13.7 billion, which corresponds to a year ago.

In 2015, Seagate recorded cash flow from operating activities of $2.6 billion and returned $1.8 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks. By the beginning of July 2015, the company's accounts accumulated about $2.5 billion in the form of cash and their equivalents, as well as short-term investments.

"Over the past few years, Seagate has improved its financial model and global supply chain, enabling us to deliver consistently high shareholder value and adapt to short-term fluctuations in our business and markets," commented Steve Luczo, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the company. "Despite the anticipated challenges of restoring the IT market, we were able to achieve many of our goals in FY2015 and maintain confidence in our own long-term growth through data growth, as well as cloud, hyperscale, and analytics solutions."

In fiscal 2015, Seagate delivered 211.8 million hard drives to the global market against 220 million a year earlier. This decline is due to the fall of the entire personal computer market. Thus, in the second quarter of 2015, global shipments of PCs decreased by 6.7% to 68.5 million units, which is the worst result for the market in the previous six years (data IDC).

Sales of desktops and laptops in the corporate sector are declining much more slowly compared to the consumer segment. This trend was also reflected in Seagate: in 2015, the company released 35.2 million HDD for business users, which is 4.2 million more devices compared to a year ago. Thanks to these products, the vendor's annual profit has increased.^[13]

Cuts to 1,000 jobs

On September 10, 2015, Seagate Technology announced a 2% reduction in global workforce. The falling demand for hard drives, which the American company specializes in, is affected.

The Reuters company is set to lay off 1,050 employees worldwide by the end of 2015, the news agency reported, citing an official statement from Seagate. As of the beginning of September 2015, the number of personnel of the manufacturer is 52,200 people.

Due to the personnel reorganization, Seagate hopes to save about $113 million annually. However, the company will first have to incur considerable expenses - about $53 million, which will be taken into account in the financial indicators of the July-September 2015 reporting period.

Seagate said the announced job cuts are part of a plan aimed at "realigning the spending structure in the current macroeconomic business environment." The company's affairs, I must say, are not going well, and this is confirmed by a more than 24 percent drop in share value since January 1, 2015.

Seagate sales have been declining since the beginning of 2015 due to weakening demand for hard drives from computer manufacturers, which in turn faced falling sales in the consumer and corporate sectors. According to IDC analysts, global PC shipments in 2015 will decline more than initially expected due to a strong dollar and a large number of unsold laptops.

To offset the negative impact of the computer industry's downturn, Seagate, as well as its main rival Western Digital, are increasingly focusing on cloud storage products.^[14]

$694 million Dot Hill Systems purchase

On August 18, 2015, Seagate Technology announced the purchase of software and storage hardware developer Dot Hill Systems. With this acquisition, the American manufacturer HDD expects to strengthen its cloud business.

Under the terms of the agreement, Seagate will pay Dot Hill shareholders $9.75 in cash for each security they own, which is 88% more than the value of the shares at the time the exchange closed on August 18, 2015 before the transaction was announced. After the sale of Dot Hill was announced, the company jumped 85% to $9.6 during the extended exchange session.

The total value of the transaction, which is planned to be closed at the end of 2015, will be $694 million. Profit from it will be taken into account in the results for the 2016 financial year.

Seagate said Dot Hill's intellectual property and disk arrays should help accelerate the growth of the company's OEM business in cloud and storage solutions. Dot Hill will be part of Seagate Cloud Systems and Electronics Solutions.

This deal can indeed strengthen the OEM direction, since Dot Hill receives most of its revenue from sales of products to large vendors such as Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Quantum, Samsung and Stratus Technologies.

Seagate will be advised on financial matters related to the Dot Hill takeover by Perella Weinberg Partners, on legal matters by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. On Dot Hill's part, the financial aspects of the deal are overseen by Morgan Stanley and Needham & Company, with Cooley LLP selected as legal counsel.

According to Berkeley Communications CTO Zeki Yasar, the takeover of Dot Hill can hardly be considered surprising, given that Seagate and its rival Western Digital are actively buying up firms in the market.^[15]

2013: Repurchase part of its own shares from Samsung's stake

On October 14, 2013, Seagate Technology announced the completion of a share buyback transaction from Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in the amount of 32.7 million ordinary shares, which is approximately 9% of Seagate's outstanding shares at the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2014. Under the transaction, Samsung will continue to own approximately 12.5 million Seagate shares, and Mr. Se-Wung Jeong, executive vice president of Systems LSI Division at Samsung Electronics, will remain on Seagate's board of directors.

'We are

thrilled that Samsung intends to remain a long-term strategic shareholder and an important business partner of Seagate. Our success with the Samsung hard drives we've purchased has exceeded expectations, and we're looking forward to working together on new products, enterprise-grade solid-state drives. We will gladly continue to receive valuable advice from Mr Geong and his legal team as part of our board work. In addition, we have a rather optimistic attitude towards the future partnership in working with flash technology, "says Steve Luczo, head, president and manager of Seagate.

Luzo continues: 'Returning value to shareholders is also a priority for Seagate, and investing in its own company at the moment appears to be the best opportunity. Given the good state of our balance sheet and the expected cash flow from operations, we continue to be targeted at share buybacks and follow the dividend plan. Thanks to this transaction, we have embarked on the path to achieving the intended goals of returning about 70% of the operating cash flow to stockholders this fiscal year, while at the same time, we continue to make strategic investments in our business, expanding our capabilities in cloud, mobile and open source DSS technologies. "

'Being able to

bring valuable innovation to the market has been a top priority of the partnership with Seagate and we are pleased that it has been successful. Samsung will continue to strategically work with Seagate to build technology solutions for the cloud and mobile applications, 'says Oh-hyun Kwon, vice president and head of Samsung Electronics.

2012

Buying LaCie

• On February 1, 2012, Seagate Technology announced that in 2012, the problems in the global hard drive market will not be resolved, so that the largest customers will resort to long-term contracts to ensure the reliability of suppliers.

The reduction in hard drive supplies, according to Seagate forecasts, primarily due to flooding in Thailand, will amount to 150 million units in 2012. Earlier, analysts Gartner said that the global hard drive market has a chance to recover in the first half of 2012. The company, Western Digital whose factories were also affected by floods, promised to restore the previous level of production only in the third quarter of 2012.

Seagate also released financial results for the quarter ended December 30, 2011. According to published data, in the industry as a whole, 105-110 million units of disks were produced in this quarter, and about 119 million units were delivered.

The company delivered 47 million units of disks in the specified quarter, which is 4% lower than the same period in 2010. But the average price of the device on sale increased by $13 in quarterly terms, the flood added an average of $2.5 to the price of one device.

During the last quarter, Seagate closed a $1.4 billion deal to buy Samsung's hard drive business; already in December, this unit delivered about 700 thousand devices. The company's profit in the reporting quarter amounted to $3.2 billion, which is 18% higher in annual terms. Net profit amounted to $563 million, a year earlier this figure was only $150 million.

The company predicts about $20 billion in profit for the year as a whole. During the quarter, which ends in March, it intends to earn $4.3 billion and supply about 60 million hard drives, and in the quarter that follows, all $5 billion thanks to the restoration of supply chains.

Although the vendor's factories were not directly affected by the flood in Thailand, component suppliers were affected, and most of them have a shortage of investment funds that could be used to restore production facilities and create new ones, said Dave' Mosley, vice president of Seagate.

Seven of Seagate's ten largest suppliers were severely affected by the natural disaster, as their factories were located in an industrial park 30 miles below Bangkok. Low production rates in the industry, however, will continue until October-December, Seagate CEO Steve Luczo' said , citing market observers. According to Lukzo, what is new in the market is a change in the behavior of large customers who at the moment prefer to conclude long-term contracts, which was not previously observed. This calendar year, such contracts will account for 60% of Seagate's products.

• On May 23, 2012, Seagate Technology and LaCie S.A., a leading manufacturer of storage devices for end consumers, announced the signing of an exclusive agreement under which Seagate plans to acquire a majority stake in LaCie.

Seagate made an offer to Philippe Spruch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of LaCie, and his companion to buy back all of their shares, representing a total of 64.5% of LaCie's outstanding shares. After receiving government approvals and closing this transaction, Seagate plans to submit a tender proposal for a simplified cash payment procedure (with a possible subsequent procedure granting the majority shareholder the right to redeem minority shares) for the acquisition of the outstanding shares.

Seagate has offered Mr Sprush and his companion to pay €4.05 per share in cash less a possible adjustment amount depending on the amount of cash and LaCie's debt at the time of closing.

This price may be increased by a possible addition to the 3% price if the threshold of 95% shares and voting rights on LaCie shares is reached by Seagate within 6 months of closing. In this case, the maximum potential price per LaCie share will be €4.17.

Without adding to the price, the offer to acquire LaCie shares is estimated at approximately €146 million, or $186 million, in the total value of the shares. This amount includes payment in cash, which amounted to about €49 million, or $65 million, as of March 31, 2012.

The price of €4.05 per share includes a premium of 29% to the average price of LaCie shares at the close of the exchange for a period of 30 trading days, which ended on May 22, 2012.

Ricol Lasteyrie & Associés has been appointed, as an independent expert by LaCie's board of directors, in order to ensure that the valuation of the company to be formed after the tender offer is issued is correct, including the possibility of a further procedure for forced share repurchases.

The deal will include two related product and technology portfolios, introducing LaCie's premium storage product line, networked storage solutions, and the company's software solutions into Seagate's mainstream storage product line.

The deal is not expected to have an impact on Seagate's fiscal 2013 earnings per share.

After the end of the deal to sell his shares to Seagate, Mr. Sprush will join Seagate and lead the company's end-user storage products division. Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Seagate's retail division, as well as Pierre van der Elst, who served as deputy general manager of LaCie, will report to him. The financial terms for Mr. Sprush's new position have not been determined to date and will be outlined subsequently and are included in the tender proposal documentation.

"Seagate is extremely interested in the growing market for user data storage and creating the most advanced products for the market. LaCie has created a special brand, presenting inspiring and innovative high-end products for years. This deal will bring Seagate a number of additional capabilities, significantly expand the set of product offerings for consumers, add a line of premium products, strengthen the line of network business solutions and expand our capabilities in software development, "says Steve Luczo, Chairman of the Board of Directors and President of Seagate. We are just as excited that Philippe, who is a true visionary and a leader in the consumer storage industry, will join and lead our consumer direction. "

The full acquisition of shares is expected in the third quarter of the calendar year 2012.

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC acted as financial advisor to Seagate, Allen & Overy LLP, a legal consultant regarding the transaction. De Pardieu Brocas Maffei A.A.R.P.I was the legal counsel for LaCie.

Results of 2012 FIN: revenue of $14.9 billion

In the fiscal year ended June 29, 2012, according to the GAAP standard, Seagate reported revenue of 14.9 billion, a dollars USA profit rate of 31.4%, net income of $2.9 billion. In FY2012, the company allocated more than 85% of the funds received as a result of operating activities to dividend payments to shareholders and share buybacks.

2011: Buying Samsung's hard drive division

April 2011. Seagate bought the hard drive division of the South Korean company Samsung Electronics. The deal amounted to $1.35 billion, according to Seagate. Half of the amount will be paid in money, and the other will be paid in shares of an American company. As a result, Samsung will own a 9.6% stake in Seagate. At the same time, a representative of the South Korean company will join the Seagate board of directors. Also, under the terms of the agreement, Seagate will be able to use NAND flash memory modules manufactured by Samsung in its own solid state drives. The American company will also supply Samsung with hard drives and drives for computers and laptops. This deal is expected to close before the end of 2011. Until that moment, it will have to pass approval from American regulators.

Seagate Technology, after buying Samsung's hard drive division, gained control of 2/3 of the hard drive market. According to a research report by IHS iSuppli analysts, at the end of 2010, the volume of global HDD supplies amounted to 652.4 million units, while Seagate and Samsung shipped 261.2 million units for two (195.2 million and 66 million devices, respectively). If we take into account certain indicators, then Seagate in 2010 controlled 30% of the market, the opponent - 10%, experts say.

Western Digital (WD) will remain the leader, which recently acquired Hitachi's hard drive business. In 2010, WD released 203.7 million drives, Hitachi's successful asset - 115.8 million. Thus, this tandem accounted for 50% of the market, they say in iSuppli.

Third with a 10 percent figure is Toshiba, which acquired Fujitsu's HDD division in 2009.

On October 14, 2013, Seagate Technology announced the completion of a repurchase transaction from Samsung Electronics in the amount of 32.7 million ordinary shares, which is approximately 9% of Seagate's outstanding shares at the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2014. Under the transaction, Samsung will continue to own approximately 12.5 million Seagate shares, and Mr. Se-Wung Jeong, executive vice president of Systems LSI Division at Samsung Electronics, will remain on Seagate's board of directors.

2010

Refusal to buy back shares by investment funds

In October 2010, it became known that the investment funds TPG Capital and KKR & Co. are in talks to buy back Seagate Technology and take the company private again. These funds are ready to offer $16 for each Seagate share, thus valuing the entire company at $7.55 billion. At the same time, TPG Capital and KKR Co. themselves want to spend no more than $4 million on the deal, and raise the rest of the money with the help of partners. As Seagate stated, they are currently considering a privatization proposal, as are alternative development options, with the involvement of consultants from Morgan Stanley Co. and other companies. Seagate added that to date, they have not yet received a formal offer. News of the negotiations led to a 21^[16] rise in Seagate shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange^[17].

Seagate Technology later announced that the Board of Directors rejected the offer to buy the company during negotiations with a number of private investors mainly because the proposed asset valuation is not in the interests of the company and its shareholders. Previously, Seagate received a preliminary offer to buy out the company by private investors, and its Board of Directors negotiated with interested parties. "We are grateful to the interest that private equity firms have shown us, our dialogue has been productive and profound," said Steve Luczo, head and chairman of the Seagate Board of Directors. - However, the board and Board of Directors have decided to end negotiations to buy the company by private investors. Taking into account favorable conditions in debt markets, improving market performance and many other options for financial instruments, Seagate is developing an action plan to further optimize the company's capital structure and increase shareholder returns. " The Seagate board believes that the demand for hard drives has increased, and the current market volume expectations in December 2010 are 170 million units. In addition, supply and demand are in equilibrium, and the number of available hard drives in all distribution channels is below the planned level or at the planned level, according to the company. Taking this information into account, in the December quarter, Seagate expects sales at $2.7 billion and gross profit of about 19.5%.

Payment of compensation to an employee in the amount of $1.9 million

In November 2010, the Federal American Court decided to recover from the world's second largest hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology compensation in the amount of $1.9 million to one of its former employees, Computerworld reports. According to Chandramouli Vaidyanathan, in 2008 he left a promising job at Texas Instruments for a job as a technologist at the Seagate plant in Minnesota. As a result, he and his family changed their place of residence, and his two children also changed their school. At Seagate, Vaidianathan was supposed to be responsible for the technological process in the production of solid state drives (SSDs), the development of which, however, at the time of his arrival at the company was not yet completed. It so happened that they did not get to the release of the device, the employee was not needed and was fired after 9 months. Vaidianathan remained extremely outraged that Seagate literally buried his career, since the world crisis began and he could not find work again for a long time. Desperate, the former specialist decided to open a solar panel firm that lawyers say makes a lot less money than if he worked as an engineer.

Fin 2010 results: profit $1.61 billion

For the 2010 fiscal year, Seagate delivered 193.2 million hard drives to the market; turnover amounted to $11.4 billion, gross profit - 28.1%, net profit - $1.61 billion, or $3.14 in terms of share. The financial results also take into account $35 million of depreciation costs, $66 million of restructuring costs, as well as costs in the amount of $3 million (as part of "Other income and expenses") received through repayment in May 2010 of a revolving credit facility opened for Seagate by writing off the value of previously impaired long-term assets (in the amount of $57 million), as well as through income tax deduction (in the amount of $50 million) as a result of the recalculation of the amount of tax payable, referred to the item "deferred tax requirements" in the "assets" section of the balance sheet. The total result of these costs was a decrease in net profit by $111 million.

2009: Loss of $3.1 billion

According to the results of the 2008-2009 financial year, the volume of hard drives produced amounted to 163.8 million units, revenue reached 9.8 billion USD, the company's net loss reached $3.1 billion, against a profit of $1.33 billion in the 2007-2008 financial year.

The company's losses included:

• $77 million from amortization of acquired intangible assets and other deductions related to acquisition processes;
• deductions related to restructuring processes and accelerated cost reduction in the amount of 266 million USD;
• contributions of USD 271 million reflecting the adverse impact of the value adjustment relating to the company's deferred tax assets, and
• deductions in the amount of 2.3 billion USD related to write-off of intangible assets of the company and other long-term assets.

The total result of these processes is a decrease in profit by 2.9 billion USD, or a decrease in share value by 5.95 USD. Of the 266 million USD spent on restructuring, 56 million USD was spent on deductions related to accelerated depreciation, of which 30 million USD is the cost of product sales and 26 million USD is the cost of product development. Most of the restructuring costs remaining on the balance sheet are related to global staff cuts, Seagate explained.

2002: Re-IPO

In 2002, investors led an IPO and again made Seagate public.

2000: Investors buy back Seagate shares and take it private

In 2000, TPG and Silver Lake Partners bought back Seagate's shares and took it private.

1979: Founding of the Company

1979 - the foundation of Seagate.

Notes