SEAGATE

SEAGATE

Seagate Technology PLC is an American data storage company that was incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology. It is currently incorporated in Dublin, Ireland and has its principal executive office in Cupertino, California, USA.

Seagate developed the first 5.25-inch hard disk drive (HDD) in 1980, the 5-megabyte ST-506. They were a major supplier in the microcomputer market during the 1980s, especially after the introduction of the IBM XT in 1983. In 1989, they finalized the purchase of Control Data Corporation's Imprimis division, makers of the Wren product line. This gave Seagate access to Wren's voicecoil-based technology. In 1991, they introduced the 7200 RPM Barracuda line, which remains their high-end offering. They purchased Maxtor in 2006 and Samsung HDD business in 2011.

HISTORY

The company's first product was released in 1980--the 5-megabyte ST-506. The product was 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) encoding, was a hit, and was later released in a 10-megabyte version, the ST-412. With this 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 their first year Seagate shipped $10 million of units to consumers, however by 1983 the company shipped over 200,000 units for revenues of $110 million.

The 20-megabyte version, the ST-225, and the 30-megabyte version, the ST-238 (physically similar but using a Run Length Limited ((2, 7) RLL) encoding to improve storage capacity), were popular aftermarket additions for the IBM XT and AT and compatible microcomputers. These were also made in SCSI versions. In 1983, Al Shugart was replaced as president by then chief operating officer, Tom Mitchell, in order to move forward with corporate restructuring in the face of a changing market. Shugart continued to oversee corporate planning. By this point the company had a 45% market share of the single-user hard drive market, with IBM purchasing 60% of the total business Seagate was doing at the time.

BRIEF DESCRITION

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 2005, Seagate acquired Mirra, Inc., a producer of personal servers for data recovery. It also acquired Action Front Data Recovery Labs, which provides data recovery services. In 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). Later that year Seagate acquired Maxtor in an all-stock deal worth $1.9 billion, continued to market the separate Maxtor brand. That year the company also produced the first hybrid drive. The following year Seagate acquired EVaul and Meta LINCS, later rebranded i365.