Seagate Technology

Seagate Technology

Type	Public (NASDAQ: STX)
Industry	Data storage
Founded	1979
Founder(s)	Alan Shugart Tom Mitchell Doug Mahon Finis Conner Syed Iftikar
Headquarters	Scotts Valley, CA, USA
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Stephen J. Luczo (Chairman CEO and President) Bob Whitmore (CTO) Pat O'Malley (CFO) Dave Mosley (EVP Operations) Albert Pimentel (EVP, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer)
Products	Hard disk drives
Revenue	US$ 11.395 billion (2010)[1]
Operating income	US$ 1.740 billion (2010)[1]
Net income	US$ 1.609 billion (2010)[1]
Total assets	US$ 8.247 billion (2010)[1]
Total equity	US$ 2.724 billion (2010)[1]
Employees	52,600 (2010)[1]
Subsidiaries	Maxtor
Website	www.seagate.com

Seagate Technology (NASDAQ: STX) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives.^[2] Incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology, Seagate is currently incorporated in Dublin, Ireland and has its principal executive offices in Scotts Valley, California, United States.^[3][4][5]

History

1970s

On November 1, 1979 Seagate Technology (then called Shugart Technology) was incorporated by co-founders Al Shugart, Tom Mitchell, Doug Mahon, Finis Conner and Syed Iftikar.^[3] The name was soon changed to Seagate Technology to avoid confusion with Xerox's subsidiary Shugart Associates (also founded by Shugart).

1980s

Seagate ST-225, cover removed.

Their first product (released in 1980) was the 5-megabyte ST-506, the first hard disk to fit the 5.25-inch form factor of the Shugart "mini-floppy" drive. The hard disk, which used a Modified Frequency Modulation (MFM) interface, was a hit, and was later released in a 10-megabyte version, the ST-412 with which Seagate secured a contract as a major OEM supplier for the IBM XT, IBM's first personal computer to contain a hard disk. The large volumes of units sold to IBM, the then-dominant supplier of PCs, fueled Seagate's early growth.

In 1983, Al Shugart was replaced as president by then chief operating officer, Tom Mitchell. Shugart continued to oversee corporate planning.

Finis Conner left Seagate in early 1985 and founded Conner Peripherals, which originally specialized in small-form-factor drives for portable computers. Conner Peripherals also entered the tape drive business with its purchase of Archive Corporation. After ten years as an independent company, Conner Peripherals was acquired by Seagate in a 1996 merger.

In 1989, facing increased competition and margin pressure, Seagate acquired Control Data's MPI/Imprimis (CDC) disk storage division. This acquisition gave Seagate access to CDC's voice-coil and disk-manufacturing patents. As well, the purchase provided access to a high-end server customer base and the first 5,400 RPM drives on the market (the CDC Elite series).

1990s

• September 1991 - Tom Mitchell resigned under pressure from the board of directors. Al Shugart reassumed presidency of the company.
• November 1991 - Seagate introduced the Barracuda hard drives, the industry's first hard disk with a 7200 RPM spindle speed.
• May 1993 - Seagate was the first to ship 50 million hard drives.
• February 1996 - Merges with Conner Peripherals to form world's largest independent hard-drive manufacturer.
• October 1996 - Seagate introduced the industry's first hard disk with a 10,000-RPM spindle speed.
• May 1997 - The High Court of Justice in England awarded Amstrad PLC $93 million in a lawsuit over reportedly faulty disk drives Seagate sold to Amstrad, a British manufacturer and marketer of personal computers.^[6]
• October 1997 - Seagate introduced the first Fibre Channel interface hard drive.
• March 1998 - Seagate produced its 1 billionth magnetic recording head.
• July 1998 - Shugart resigned his positions with Seagate.^[7]
• August 1998 - Seagate Research is established in Pittsburgh.
• April 1999 - Seagate ships its 250 millionth hard drive.

2000s

• 2000 - Seagate incorporated in Grand Cayman.
• February 2000 - Seagate introduced the first 15,000-RPM hard drive.
• October 2001 - Microsoft Xbox game console shipped with Seagate hard drives.
• December 2002 - Seagate re-entered the public market (NYSE: STX).
• June 2003 - Seagate re-entered the hard drive market for notebook computers.
• March 2005 - Seagate shipped its 10 millionth 15,000-RPM hard drive.
• September 2005 - Seagate acquired Mirra, Inc.
• November 2005 - Seagate acquired ActionFront Data Recovery Labs.
• January 2006 - Seagate named 2006 "Company of the Year" by Forbes Magazine.
• April 2006 - Seagate announced the first professional Direct-To-Disc digital cinema professional video camera aimed at the independent filmmaking market (using their disc drives).^[8]
• May 2006 - Seagate acquired Maxtor in an all-stock deal worth $1.9 billion. Seagate continued to market the separate Maxtor brand.
• October 2006 - Seagate shipped the first hybrid drive.
• 2007 - Seagate acquired EVault and MetaLINCS, later rebranded i365.^[9]
• April 2008 - Seagate was the first to ship 1 billion hard drives.
• January 2009 - Bill Watkins was released from employment as CEO.^[10]
• December 2009 - Seagate announce their first solid-state drive, the Seagate Pulsar.^[11]

2010s

• January 2010 - Seagate's Board of Directors approved changing the company's incorporation Seagate from the Cayman Islands to Ireland. The change was approved at a shareholders meeting on April 14, 2010 and the change of incorporation took effect on July 3, 2011.^[12][13]
• June 2010 - Seagate released the world's first 3TB hard drive, in the form of an external hard drive as part of their Seagate FreeAgent line of external Hard Drives.^[14]
• September 2010 - Seagate released the world's first portable 1.5TB hard drive.^[15]
• March 2011 - Seagate announced the first standalone version of its 3TB hard drive that can be used with their desktop computers.^[16]
• September 2011 - Seagate launched the world's first 4TB single harddisk external drive. ^[17]

Corporate affairs

Seagate Technology US office in Scotts Valley

Seagate was traded for most of its life as a public company under the symbol "SGAT" on the NASDAQ system, then moved to the NYSE system under the symbol "SEG" in the 1990s. In 2000, Seagate incorporated in the Grand Cayman Islands in order to reduce income taxes. In 2000, the company was taken private by an investment group composed of Seagate management, Silver Lake Partners, Texas Pacific Group and others in a three-way merger-spinoff with Veritas Software; Veritas merged with Seagate, which was bought by the investment group. Veritas was then immediately spun off to shareholders, gaining rights to Seagate Software Network and Storage Management Group (with products such as Backup Exec), as well as Seagate's shares in SanDisk and Dragon Systems. Seagate Software Information Management Group was renamed Crystal Decisions in May 2001. Seagate re-entered the public market in December 2002 on the NYSE as "STX."

Automatic acoustic management and Convolve lawsuit

In July 2000, Convolve Inc. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed a lawsuit against Compaq Computer Corp. and Seagate Technology Inc. in the US District Court Southern District of New York, alleging that the defendants had stolen Convolve's computer disk drive technologies (US patents 4,916,635 and 5,638,267) and incorporated them into Seagate's products as 'Sound Barrier Technology' (SBT).^[18][19] In June 2001, a claim for US patent 6,314,473 was added to the claim, and Convolve asserted amended Seagate's infringement of patent 6,314,473 in February 2002, which alleged Seagate's infringement was willful.^[20]

During the course of lawsuit, National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh claimed the insurers have no duty to defend Seagate, but a federal judge in California ruled that NUFICOP must defend the claim.^[21][22]

Although Seagate had tried to suppress evidence from their attorneys due to attorney-client privilege, Convolve claimed that the evaluation was fair game for discovery. The district court found that Seagate had waived the privilege to all documents within the scope of the waiver and ordered Seagate to turn over all documents exchanged amongst outside counsel relating to the alleged use by Seagate of the Convolve patents.^[23] Seagate unsuccessfully tried to stay this decision at the district court level before the Federal Circuit stepped in.^[24] However, the Federal Circuit determined that the waiver of attorney-client privilege should not be extended to trial counsel.^[25]

In 2008, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of Convolve Inc. and against Seagate Technology Inc. The Board denied Seagate's motions challenging the patentability of Convolve's claims. Seagate did not appeal the Board's decision.^[26][27] In 2008-08-20, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) concluded U.S. patent 6,314,473 was valid, without change to the originally issued claim scope. Convolve also filed lawsuit against Dell Computer, Western Digital, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Inc., and Hitachi Ltd., asserting the '473 and another patent.^[28] In 2009-04-01, USPTO concluded five of the original U.S. Patent 4,916,635 ('635) claim were valid, but the patent had expired during reexamination proceedings. The ruling allowed Convolve to claim damages against Seagate prior to the patent's expiration, with trial beginning in January 2010.^[29]

As a result of the lawsuit, Seagate stopped supporting automatic acoustic management on hard drives beginning with Seagate Barracuda 7200.7, before rulings of the trial had been decided. Nevertheless, some Barracuda 7200.7 drives included AAM support.^[30] In later products such as Seagate Barracuda 7200.12, the quiet seek mode is set at the factory and cannot be adjusted by end users.^[31]

Acquisitions

• Samsung's hard disk drive division^[32] (announced April 2011)
• Maxtor (May 2006)
  • MiniScribe acquired by Maxtor in 1990
  • Quantum Corp's hard disk drive division acquired by Maxtor in 2000
    • Digital Equipment Corporation's storage division acquired by Quantum in 1994
• Conner Peripherals (1996)
• CDC's Imprimis division (1989)

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Financial statements for Seagate Technologies
2. ^ "Western Digital Corp. preserving its leadership position in shipments (in 2010) for what will be the third consecutive quarter."[1]
3. ^ ^{a b} Seagate Technology Prospectus, Sept 24, 1891
4. ^ Old-Computers.com
5. ^ "Seagate Technology SEC Filings". U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. http://google.brand.edgar-online.com/DisplayFiling.aspx?TabIndex=2&FilingID=6735007&companyid=85676&ppu=%252fdefault.aspx%253fsym%253dstx. Retrieved 2008-08-02. 
6. ^ "Seagate to pay $93 Million in Amstrad suit". The New York Times. 1997-05-10. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/10/business/seagate-to-pay-93-million-in-amstrad-suit.html?pagewanted=1. Retrieved 2010-01-30. 
7. ^ "Separation agreement and release, Exh 10.14 to Seagate 10K for fiscal year ending July 3, 1998". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. 20 August 1998. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/354952/0001012870-98-002215.txt. Retrieved 2006-12-14. 
8. ^ "Seagate Hard Drives Enable World's First Digital Cinema Camera With Direct-To-Disc. Recording" (Press release). Seagate. March, 2005. http://www.seagate.com/cda/newsinfo/newsroom/releases/article/0,1121,3148,00.html. Retrieved 2006-11-22. 
9. ^ I365.com
10. ^ http://www.siliconbeat.com/2009/02/10/ousted-seagate-ceo-to-get-5m-company-wont-contest-any-unemployment-claim
11. ^ "Seagate Introduces Its First Solid State Drive: Pulsar". seagate.com. http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=null&vgnextoid=69bc5f9d6da55210VgnVCM1000001a48090aRCRD. Retrieved 3 January 2011. 
12. ^ Seagate 10Q, May 5, 2010
13. ^ Seagate Incorporation In Ireland To Be Effective July 3, 2010
14. ^ http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=25296
15. ^ Perenson, Melissa J. (2010-09-27). "Seagate's 1.5TB GoFlex Portable Drive Packs Monster Storage Into a Small Space". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/23/AR2010092306805.html. 
16. ^ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20037397-1.html
17. ^ http://www.anandtech.com/show/4738/seagate-ships-worlds-first-4tb-external-hdd
18. ^ Convolve, Inc., et al v. Compaq Computer Corp, et al
19. ^ Compaq & Seagate Sued For $800 Million - Company Business and Marketing
20. ^ United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Miscellaneous Docket No. 830
21. ^ Insurers Must Defend Even 'Groundless, False, Fraudulent' Claims
22. ^ National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA, et al., vs Seagate Technology, Inc.: Case No. C04-01593 JW (HRL) - Order denying plaintiffs' motion for an order to show cause
23. ^ Waiving Attorney-Client Privilege: Patent Opinions Developed by In-House Engineers, Patent Agents and Attorneys
24. ^ Federal Circuit Decision in Seagate Redefines the Willfulness Standard for Patent Infringement Claims
25. ^ Waiver from Advice of Counsel Defense Does Not Extend to Trial Counsel: In re Seagate Technology, LLC
26. ^ The Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences Decides in Favor of Convolve Against Seagate in Disk Drive Technology Interference
27. ^ Board of Patent in Favor Convolve Against Seagate
28. ^ PTO Reexamination Finds Convolve Patent Valid
29. ^ USPTO Finds Convolve Patent Valid in Reexamination - Convolve v. Seagate Patent Trial Set for January 2010
30. ^ 160G/8mb-cache Faceoff: Samsung vs. Seagate
31. ^ Seagate's Barracuda 7200.12 hard drive 500GB platters spinning at 7,200RPM
32. ^ Seagate and Samsung Announce Broad Strategic Alignment

External links

• Seagate Technology website
• Seagate Milestones
• Seagate hard drive production date calculator
• Former Seagate logo