It was announced yesterday that Seagate has acquired LaCie. With this stunning announcement, it leaves the hard drive industry with only two real players now, Seagate and Western Digital.
The Dude looks upon this as not a good thing. We have had our ups-and-downs with LaCie over the last 11 years, but they have consistently provided innovative products to the Mac market. I am afraid that it is now going to go all away, and the one company that could be relied on, that "got" the Mac, is going to be a big-box, Windows-centric division that will probably disappear in the Seagate empire, just like every other company Seagate has acquired. LaCie has told me otherwise, but I'm still worried.
On a more personal level, we here at the DV Shop have gotten to know a number of LaCie Canada employees very well, and while nothing has been decided, we are guessing that some, or all, will lose their jobs. Takeovers are never a good thing for employees.
This latest merger is the last in a long line of hard drive manufacturers consolidating. Since we opened in 2001, here is the chain of events (that we can remember) : Maxtor buys Quantum; Seagate buys Maxtor; Hitachi buys IBM drive division; SimpleTech buys G-Tech; Hitachi buys SimpleTech; Western Digital buys Hitachi drive division; Seagate buys Samsung drive division; Seagate buys LaCie. I'm sure I've missed one or two.
So now we are left with two mega drive companies. Perhaps this will be a good thing, but being the cynical dude that I am, it probably won't.
