Q&A: Seagate CEO talks about the Maxtor acquisition

27.12.2005

Watkins: I think it's going to be in the second half of calendar year 2006. I expect six to nine months.

CW: What other value is there in this deal?

Watkins: There are some assets we think are valuable over there. Their China facilities, their media facilities we feel are both state of the art and are capable of going forward with perpendicular [recording technology]. We believe they have a very good brand in that space. I think from an additional engineering resources perspective, they have some good people that we can bring on.

CW: You're already developing perpendicular technology. How does Maxtor bring that to the table for you?

Watkins: They don't. We take their facilities, put our infrastructure in there and manufacture to their customer base -- in what will become our customer base now. They utilize a lot of the same equipment we do, but they're more capable in making perpendicular media. We obviously think we can add some technology to that.