Hard drive manufacturing giant Seagate recently purchased the Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and data storage division of Samsung Electronics in a $1.375 billion deal. The companies are calling the agreement a “broad strategic alignment” http://www.isuppli.com/Memory-and-Storage/News/Pages/Seagate-to-Control-… and it actually has several facets.

Under the agreement:

– Samsung combines its hard drive manufacturing operations with Seagate

– Seagate acquires Samsung’s NAND technology, for use in the compnay’s SSDs and hybrid hard drives

– Seagate will provide drives for Samsung PCs, notebook computers and consumer electronics devices

– Seagate will pay for the acquisition with 50% cash and 50% in stock, giving Samsung 9.6% ownership of Seagate

The deal gives Seagate 40% of the world’s market share for hard disk drives, keeping the company at number two behind Western Digital, which recently acquired Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

What Does This Mean to Business Owners and Individuals?

In the past year, the hard disk drive industry has dropped from five major players to just three: Seagate, Western Digital/Hitachi, and Toshiba/Fujitsu, with just 10 percent of the market share.

The combined assets, brainpower and technology with top industry leaders Hitachi/Western Digital and Samsung/Seagate joining forces may lead to even more rapid developments in HDD technology.

That means today’s data recovery experts must keep pace. At 24 Hour Data, we are, and always have been, experts in data recovery for Samsung, Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi, Toshiba and other brands of hard disk drives. Our research and development teams continue to work to stay on the cutting edge of data recovery methods to serve our customers.

Whether your drive is new or old, manufactured by a major player or a smaller name in data storage technology, we can help recover your data fast, in an ISO 9000 certified clean room environment, when necessary, for very affordable prices.

The hard drive industry seems to be changing as fast as hard drive technology; trust 24 Hour Data to keep up.