Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion • Hacker News Board

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#31

Post by reefab » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 12:52 PM UTC

dextorious wrote: post #30

antirez wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, what disappears is the Facebook "potential" to make money, and the valuation is done thinking at this possibility. Now if you look at it in this way, billions of people using Facebook can be monetized probably much better in the long run compared to selling a new HD from time to time to millions.

"""billions of people using Facebook can be monetized probably much better in the long run compared to selling a new HD from time to time to millions.""" As if this has worked well in the past for other hyper-valued web crap... (Which reminds me, anybody remembers that ole VA Linux company? Where are they now?)

Long story short: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geeknet

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#32

Post by bane » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 12:55 PM UTC

dextorious wrote: post #30

antirez wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, what disappears is the Facebook "potential" to make money, and the valuation is done thinking at this possibility. Now if you look at it in this way, billions of people using Facebook can be monetized probably much better in the long run compared to selling a new HD from time to time to millions.

"""billions of people using Facebook can be monetized probably much better in the long run compared to selling a new HD from time to time to millions.""" As if this has worked well in the past for other hyper-valued web crap... (Which reminds me, anybody remembers that ole VA Linux company? Where are they now?)

VA Linux is now Geeknet and is basically ThinkGeek and a few other minor properties (/., sourceforge, freecode). They've shed all of their other business lines, hardware, consulting, Animation Factory, etc.

Virtually all of their business news for years has been ThinkGeek related (which is doing pretty awesome), and various corporate level failings such that all of their other properties have always been a drag on the company, frequently throwing it into the red despite having an extremely profitable e-commerce division.

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#33

Post by rkalla » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 1:21 PM UTC

For anyone that is curious about Seagate's SSD play and have been waiting for them to do something customer-facing for a while now: they have actually been doing enterprise flash storage for years, but I would assume through this acquisition we will now see official customer-facing drives being sold next year.

Likely rebranded Samsung 830s for starters (which is a solid drive) and hopefully get some updates and a common controller/firmware between the consumer drives and enterprise drives in 2014/15 to bring them in more a competitive lineup with the SanForce controllers that are dominating (note: still waiting to see what the 3rd gen Intel's perform like, they may change the landscape. Hard to say at this point).

Not thrilled to see only two options when it comes to spindle drives, but I imagine those aren't long enough for this world to really create a hub-bub.

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#34

Post by forgottenpaswrd » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 1:23 PM UTC

apike wrote: post #20

Apple is the largest buyer of SSDs in the world, but their largest supplier has been Samsung, a company they've been increasingly at odds with in the phone business. In one day, it is announced that Samsung has sold this business, and that Apple has purchased a competing SSD supplier. Just like that, the shape of the market shifts dramatically.

"In one day, it is announced that Samsung has sold this business, "

Not really, they had sold the hard drive business, but not the SSD business. Read the article, you will notice it says that it provides Seagate a LINK with the SSD business, not with the business itself.

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#35

Post by rdtsc » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 2:14 PM UTC

swah wrote: post #28

vasco wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What amazes me is that people actually think this is the right way to look at things...

Its the market...

What's the market? The way people look at things. ....

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#36

Post by ghc » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 2:22 PM UTC

vondur wrote: post #5

I'm surprised that they sold the SSD business. I'm guessing that's primarily what Segate was after.

They did not sell their SSD business. They sold their Hard Drive business.

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#37

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 2:23 PM UTC

ars wrote: post #2

And then there were 4[1]. And soon to be 3[2]. And one of those doesn't make many drives[3]. So we have a duopoly in hard disks. I'm quite surprised regulators allowed this deal. [1] Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Toshiba [2] WD is buying Hitachi [3] Toshiba doesn't make many drives, and only makes 2.5 inch and smaller.

[deleted]

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#38

Post by beedogs » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 2:34 PM UTC

ludwigvan wrote: post #13

protomyth wrote: post #4

As of late, Seagate drives have been pretty crappy, which is a real shame given their former glory. Maybe this purchase will change something.

Agreed. Two of my latest Seagate purchases died while I was very satisfied with Samsung. It might be worse though, buying a Samsung drive, should one expect Seagate or Samsung quality in the future?

This is precisely what makes Seagate drives a dubious purchase for me. I usually go with other brands. Now, there's one less.

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#39

Post by adestefan » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 2:54 PM UTC

microtonal wrote: post #12

ars wrote: post #2

And then there were 4[1]. And soon to be 3[2]. And one of those doesn't make many drives[3]. So we have a duopoly in hard disks. I'm quite surprised regulators allowed this deal. [1] Seagate, WD, Hitachi, Toshiba [2] WD is buying Hitachi [3] Toshiba doesn't make many drives, and only makes 2.5 inch and smaller.

Fortunately, there is more competition in the SSD space. And given that SSD will probably become the norm in laptops and desktops, this shouldn't be a problem for most people.

The SSD market is starting to collapse in on itself as well. Most of the smaller controller manufacturers are starting to be bought by rivals and I'll be amazed if Sandforce makes it until 2013 without being bought. Plus flash chips are already a pretty small market.

Re: Samsung Sold its Hard Drive Business to Seagate for $1.4 Billion

#40

Post by e40 » Wed, Dec 21, 2011, 2:56 PM UTC

jitbit wrote: post #17

$1.4 billion, mates. $1.4 billion for a business with manufacturing plants, complicated global logistics... Now let me remind you that Facebook is valued 85 (!) times more.. o_O

A company that makes really crappy disk drives. I've RMA'd so many of the newer Samsung's I've lost count. At this point, certain models fail so much that I toss them when they fail, and I only ever use them in mirrored arrays (with other non-Samsung's!).