Seagate to buy LaCie for $186 million

[still1]

Seagate and LaCie have gotten friendly before -- the former company's drives are in the LaCie 2big Thunderbolt HDD, for instance -- but the storage makers are about to get even cozier. Today, Seagate announced its plans to buy a 64.5-percent share in the French company, which is currently valued at $186 million. The acquisition will combine the two outlets' product portfolios and, according to the press release, "accelerate Seagate's growth strategy in the expanding consumer storage market, particularly in Europe and Japan." The deal should go through by late 2012, and Seagate will bring over LaCie CEO Philippe Spruch to head the consumer storage products division.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/23/seagate-to-buy-lacie/

[HawkMan]

There goes LaCie quality down the drain.

[Tech Star]

There goes more competition.

[+Warwagon MVC]

The only thing I hate about seagate is their RMA process. I've had to RMA a few things to segate and everytime I had to call them. To me I buy western digital because their RMA process is Bar None.

[Gocom]

I truly hope that the purchase doesn't affect LaCie's design. While LaCie's hardware selection (including controllers and power supplies) has a lot to improve, LaCie is one of the few that produces accessories cased in something else than branding riddled, glossy finger print magnet, low quality fragile plastic.

[still1]

Not a big fan or seagate or lacie since i dont feel like they make good quality product.(maybe its just me)

I own WD products and they seem to last longer at least for me. own a 250Gb external hard drive for 4 years without issues.

Hopefully they comeup with quality product with out killing competion.

[primexx]

There goes LaCie quality down the drain.

came here to say exactly that

[Raa]

LaCie had good quality? Well that's news to me.

I've never been a big fan of their products... Or Seagates.

[Singh400]

LaCie has got an awful rep. Bad CS, and awful dreadful quality all round.

[Astra.Xtreme]

I've always thought LaCie was a cheapo brand aswell.

[scratch42069]

I've always thought LaCie was a cheapo brand aswell.

They are a cheapo brand, just one that got bought out by a big name company.

[Kelxin]

Anyone remember when Seagate said they would do a 5 year warranty on ALL of their drives?

http://5yrwarranty.seagatestorage.com/

Anyone notice they've killed 95% of their warranties down to either 1 or 2 year now and all of the manufacturers are doing the same thing? I wonder if there are behind the scenes talks going on between these companies because at least ONE company should still stand behind their products....

Quote from the top PDF on that page:

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. ? July 26, 2004 ? Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX), the world?s leading hard disc drive maker, today announced it has introduced a 5-year warranty, effective immediately, on every Seagate internal PC, notebook and enterprise hard drive shipped through its distribution and retail channels throughout the world.

[what]

Anyone remember when Seagate said they would do a 5 year warranty on ALL of their drives?

http://5yrwarranty.seagatestorage.com/

Anyone notice they've killed 95% of their warranties down to either 1 or 2 year now and all of the manufacturers are doing the same thing? I wonder if there are behind the scenes talks going on between these companies because at least ONE company should still stand behind their products....

Quote from the top PDF on that page:

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. ? July 26, 2004 ? Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX), the world?s leading hard disc drive maker, today announced it has introduced a 5-year warranty, effective immediately, on every Seagate internal PC, notebook and enterprise hard drive shipped through its distribution and retail channels throughout the world.

And between then and now we've had a double-dip recession. Companies priorities change with economic climate.

[.Neo]

LaCie has got an awful rep. Bad CS, and awful dreadful quality all round.

Never had any issues with them.

[ZakO]

There goes LaCie quality down the drain.

+1. Won't be touching anything by LaCie anymore (or any other seagate-owned companies).

[Elliott]

...f***.

[Ci7]

it is really concerning

HDD makers keep decreasing :( i hope that doesn't mean inflated HDD price in the future

[scratch42069]

it is really concerning

HDD makers keep decreasing :( i hope that doesn't mean inflated HDD price in the future

It isn't really a big loss. At one time there were only 3 hard drive manufacturers I can recall; WD, Seagate and Hitachi. Prices didn't decrease dramatically when the cheapo brands like LaCie and Memorex entered the hard drive market, they decreased as bigger sized drives became available and cost to manufacture decreased.

[Ci7]

It isn't really a big loss. At one time there were only 3 hard drive manufacturers I can recall; WD, Seagate and Hitachi. Prices didn't decrease dramatically when the cheapo brands like LaCie and Memorex entered the hard drive market, they decreased as bigger sized drives became available and cost to manufacture decreased.

i mean they are bigger chance now for price fixing and other abuse measures

would be far more damaging since the market become much bigger from back than

[M_Lyons10]

Not a big fan or seagate or lacie since i dont feel like they make good quality product.(maybe its just me)

I own WD products and they seem to last longer at least for me. own a 250Gb external hard drive for 4 years without issues.

Hopefully they comeup with quality product with out killing competion.

I always find it interesting how varying people's experiences can be. For me I have had HORRIBLE luck with WD. Every drive I've ever had has failed within a year, one within weeks of owning it. Whereas my Seagates just run and run without a single problem. It's just so weird. lol

[ozgeek]

Actually Seagate and WD are very good. I have pulled my computer apart last night after it was last setup 5 years ago and was surprised to see the dates on my drives. One, a Seagate, is from 2006, the others, WDs, are from 2008-9. I have a Seagate 8.4 GB (yes you read that right EIGHT point FOUR GIGABYTES) from my first computer, 1999 and still works great. I still use it as a Windows install disk. I have a couple smaller ones even older and I'm sure they still work fine. however I did have my share of unlucks with some drives failing but a simple replacement solves them.

[.Neo]

Just got myself a new 2 TB LaCie d2 Quadra v3 FireWire 800/USB 3.0 2TB as an addition to my 750 GB LaCie d2 Quadra v2 FireWire 800/USB 2.0. The latter served me well for the past five years, but it was getting a bit too small. Will still make a good Time Machine backup drive though. (Y)

I honestly don't know why people feel LaCie's are cheap. Especially the d2 Quadra design is amazing: they're made of aluminum, feel extremely solid, are heavy, come with a three-year warrantee and overall just plain sexy looking (IMO at least). I know there are lots of stories on the internet about failing drives, although I've heard similar stories just about any brand. Personally my WesternDigital MyBook 500 GB failed after only 1,5 years of average use and it never received a software update for OS X Leopard, something I was extremely ****ed off about.