Seagate Technology facts for kids
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Operational headquarters in Fremont, California
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| Public | |
| Traded as | |
| Industry | Computer storage |
| Predecessor | Shugart Technology |
| Founded | November 1, 1979 (as Shugart Technology) |
| Founders |
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| Headquarters | Fremont, California, United States (operational) Dublin, Ireland (legal domicile) |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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Michael R. Cannon (chairman) Dave Mosley (CEO) |
| Products | |
| Revenue |  US$7.38 billion (2023) |
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Operating income
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−US$342 million (2023) |
| −US$529 million (2023) |
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| Total assets | US$7.56 billion (2023) |
| Total equity | −US$1.2 billion (2023) |
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Number of employees
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33,400 (2023) |
| Subsidiaries | LaCie |
| Footnotes / references Financials as of June 30, 2023[update]. |
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Seagate Technology Holdings plc is an American company that makes and sells data storage devices. These devices help computers and other electronics save information. Seagate started in 1978 as Shugart Technology and began its business in 1979. Since 2010, the company has been based in Dublin, Ireland, but its main operations are in Fremont, California, United States.
Seagate created the very first 5.25-inch hard disk drive (HDD) in 1980. It was called the ST-506 and could store 5 megabytes of data. In the 1980s, Seagate was a big supplier for microcomputers, especially after the IBM XT computer came out in 1983. Seagate has grown a lot by buying other companies. They bought Control Data Corporation's disk drive part in 1989, Conner Peripherals in 1996, Maxtor in 2006, and Samsung's HDD business in 2011. Today, Seagate and its main competitor, Western Digital, are the biggest players in the hard disk drive market.
Contents
How Seagate Started and Grew
Early Days as Shugart Technology
Seagate Technology first started on November 1, 1978, under the name Shugart Technology. It began operating in October 1979 with its founders: Al Shugart, Tom Mitchell, Doug Mahon, Finis Conner, and Syed Iftikar. The idea for the company came from Finis Conner, who believed that 5.25-inch hard drives would become very popular. The company later changed its name to Seagate Technology to avoid confusion with another company called Shugart Associates.
Growing with Tom Mitchell
Seagate's first product, the ST-506, came out in 1980. It could store 5 megabytes of data and was the first hard disk that fit into the same space as a floppy disk. Later, a 10 MB version, the ST-412, was released. Seagate got a big contract to supply hard drives for the IBM XT, which was IBM's first personal computer with a hard disk. Selling many units to IBM helped Seagate grow quickly. In its first year, Seagate sold $10 million worth of products. By 1983, the company had sold over 200,000 units, bringing in $110 million.
In 1983, Tom Mitchell took over as president from Al Shugart. This happened as the company needed to change its structure to keep up with the market. By this time, Seagate had 45% of the market for single-user hard drives, and IBM bought 60% of Seagate's products. In 1989, Seagate bought Imprimis Technology, which was the disk storage part of Control Data Corporation. This made Seagate's market share 43%. Seagate gained better technology from Imprimis, while Imprimis got access to Seagate's lower manufacturing costs.
Al Shugart Returns in the 1990s
In September 1991, Al Shugart became president again. He decided to focus the company on its most profitable products, especially drives for larger computer systems. He also brought more production back to the United States. This helped Seagate meet the huge demand for PCs in 1993. In 1991, Seagate also launched the Barracuda HDD, which was the first hard disk to spin at 7,200 rotations per minute (RPM).
By May 1993, Seagate was the first company to have shipped a total of 50 million hard drives. The next year, Seagate Technology Inc. moved its stock listing from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange. In 1996, Seagate joined with Conner Peripherals to become the world's largest independent maker of hard drives. After this, the company worked to make its production methods more efficient across its factories.
In 1996, Seagate introduced the Cheetah 4LP, the first hard disk with a 10,000 RPM speed. By 2000, this product reached 15,000 RPM with the Cheetah 15X. In 1997, Seagate also launched the first hard drive with a Fibre Channel interface. In July 1998, Al Shugart left the company, and Stephen J. "Steve" Luczo became the new CEO.
Steve Luczo's First Time as CEO (1998–2004)
Steve Luczo joined Seagate in 1993. He played a key role in Seagate buying Conner Peripherals in 1996, which made Seagate the biggest disk drive maker. In 1998, Luczo became CEO and started to reorganize Seagate. He changed how design teams worked, focusing them on individual projects to get products to market faster. He also decided to invest more in new technology and expand into areas with higher profits. Between 1997 and 2004, Seagate reduced its number of employees and factories but increased its output of drives.
In 1998, Seagate also opened its Research facility in Pittsburgh. This facility focused on developing future technologies, like the hard drive for Microsoft's first Xbox gaming console. By 1999, Seagate had shipped its 250 millionth hard drive.
In 2000, Seagate became a private company again. Luczo believed that Seagate needed to make big investments for the future, and it was easier to do this as a private company. The company became public again in 2002. This change involved a big deal with Veritas Software and an investment group.
Becoming a Public Company Again (2002–2010)
Steve Luczo became the chairman of Seagate's board of directors in 2002. In 2003, Seagate started making hard drives for notebook computers again and provided the 1-inch hard drives for the first iPods. This helped start a trend of digital devices having more and more memory. In 2004, Bill Watkins became CEO, and Luczo remained chairman.
In 2006, Forbes magazine named Seagate its Company of the Year, calling it the best-managed company in the U.S. They noted that Seagate was benefiting from the growth of gadgets like cameras and MP3 players. In 2007, Seagate introduced the idea of a hybrid drive, which combines parts of a traditional hard drive and a solid-state drive.
In April 2008, Seagate was the first company to ship one billion hard drives. It took 17 years to ship the first 100 million, but only 15 more years to ship the next 900 million! In 2009, Bill Watkins left his role as CEO.
Steve Luczo's Second Time as CEO (2009–2017)
In January 2009, Steve Luczo was asked to return as CEO. At this time, Seagate was facing many challenges, including losing market share and declining sales. Luczo changed the management team and reorganized the company. By the end of 2009, the company had improved its finances and operations. In 2010, Seagate started paying dividends to its shareholders again and buying back its own stock.
In 2010, Seagate moved its main offices from Scotts Valley to Cupertino, California. In June 2010, Seagate released the world's first 3 TB hard drive. That September, they released the first portable 1.5 TB hard drive. In July 2011, the company changed its country of incorporation to Ireland.
In December 2011, Seagate bought Samsung's hard drive business. Seagate also got a license to use the Samsung brand name on hard drive products for five years. After that, Seagate rebranded Samsung-branded external hard drives to Maxtor, another company Seagate had bought earlier.
By 2012, Seagate had achieved record sales and profits and became the largest disk drive manufacturer again. Its market value grew to over $14 billion. In March 2012, Seagate showed off the first hard drive with a density of 1 TB per square inch, meaning it could store a huge amount of data in a small space. They even thought it could reach 60 TB by 2030!
In 2013, Seagate was the first HDD company to start shipping shingled magnetic recording drives, which use a special way to pack more data onto the disk. In August 2016, Seagate showed off its 60 TB SSD, which was the largest solid-state drive ever shown at that time. In January 2017, Seagate announced it was closing one of its largest hard drive assembly plants in Suzhou, China.
Dave Mosley Era (2017–Present)
On July 25, 2017, David "Dave" Mosley became the new CEO, taking over from Steve Luczo. In June 2018, Seagate was recognized at the Manufacturing Leadership Awards. In 2019, Seagate invested £47 million in a research and development project at its factory in Derry, Northern Ireland.
In 2020, Seagate announced another move for its headquarters and most staff, this time from Cupertino to Fremont, California. From May to June that year, the company reduced its workforce by 500 employees across 12 countries to improve efficiency.
In September 2020, Seagate entered the object storage business and introduced CORTX, an open-source software for storing large amounts of data. They also created a community for developers to work on this technology. In May 2021, the company's official public name became Seagate Technology Holdings plc.
In November 2021, Seagate showed the first hard drive with a non-volatile memory express (NVMe) interface. This was interesting because NVMe is usually used for much faster storage like SSDs. In May 2022, Seagate showed its LiDAR system, which uses light to measure distances, but later sold this part of its business in February 2023. In October 2022, Seagate announced a plan to reduce its workforce by about 3,000 jobs.
Seagate Products
Internal Storage: SSDs and HDDs
Seagate makes many different internal solid-state drive (SSD) and hard disk drive (HDD) products. They are named based on what they are best used for:
- Barracuda – These are Seagate's most popular and affordable SSDs and HDDs. They are made for everyday devices like computers, laptops, gaming consoles, and set-top boxes. Barracuda HDDs can spin at 5,200–7,200 RPM and store from 500 GB to 8 TB. Barracuda SSDs come with either SATA or NVMe connections and can store from 240 GB to 2 TB.
- Firecuda – These drives are designed for gaming computers, laptops, and consoles. Seagate offers both internal and external Firecuda SSDs and HDDs. They use SATA, NVMe, or USB-C connections and can store from 250 GB to 16 TB.
- Ironwolf – These are special drives for NAS devices, which are like personal cloud storage. Ironwolf HDDs can store from 1–20 TB. Ironwolf SSDs can store from 240 GB to 4 TB.
- Skyhawk – These drives are for recording video from surveillance systems, like security cameras. They are used in devices such as DVRs or NVRs. The Skyhawk AI series can store 8–18 TB, while the regular Skyhawk series stores 1–8 TB.
- Exos – These are powerful drives for large computer systems called datacenters. They come in different series:
- Exos E – These can store from 300 GB to 8 TB.
- Exos X – These can store from 12–20 TB.
- Exos Mozaic 3+ – Introduced in 2023, these drives offer 30 TB+ capacity. They are designed for both large businesses and regular users.
- Nytro – This series includes enterprise Serial Attached SCSI Solid State Drives, with capacities up to 15 TB.
External Storage: SSDs and HDDs
Seagate also offers many external storage devices that connect to computers and laptops:
- Seagate Basic External HDDs
- Backup Plus External HDDs
- Backup Plus Hub External HDDs
- Photo Drive External HDDs
- Barracuda Fast External SSDs
- Seagate Expansion External SSD and HDDs
- One Touch External SSD and HDDs
- Ultra Touch External SSD and HDDs
Gaming Console Storage
Seagate works with both PlayStation and Xbox to make storage devices for their consoles. For the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Seagate offers "Game Drive" external hard drives (2–4 TB). For the Xbox Series X/S, Seagate partnered with Xbox to create a special SSD expansion card that plugs directly into the console. This card is available in 1 TB, with 2 TB versions planned.
Lyve Cloud
Lyve Cloud is a storage service that uses the internet (cloud-based). Seagate launched it in February 2021. It was made with Equinix and is meant for businesses.
Data Storage Systems
Seagate also provides large data storage systems for businesses. These include platforms that combine computing and storage, as well as flash, hybrid, and disk arrays. In June 2021, Seagate introduced the Exos CORVAULT, a storage system that helps automate maintenance and reduce electronic waste.
Older Product Lines
Some of Seagate's older product lines that are no longer made include:
- U-Series – Cheaper desktop HDDs from the late 1990s.
- Medalist – Mainstream HDDs for desktops, later replaced by Barracuda.
- Cheetah – Very fast HDDs (10,000–15,000 RPM), stopped being made in the early 2000s.
- Momentus – High-performance laptop HDDs.
- Decathlon – Popular but expensive desktop hard drives.
Company Information
Seagate's stock was first traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. In 1994, it moved to the New York Stock Exchange. In 2000, Seagate became a private company for a while, then went public again in 2002 on the Nasdaq. By November 2023, most of Seagate's stock was owned by large investment groups.
Partnerships and Acquisitions
Finis Conner, one of Seagate's founders, left in 1985 to start Conner Peripherals. This company focused on smaller drives for portable computers. Seagate later bought Conner Peripherals in 1996.
In 2005, Seagate bought Mirra Inc., which made personal servers for data recovery. They also bought ActionFront Data Recovery Labs, which helps people get back lost data. In 2006, Seagate bought Maxtor for $1.9 billion and continued to sell products under the Maxtor brand. The next year, Seagate bought EVault and MetaLINCS.
In 2014, Seagate bought Xyratex, a company that made storage systems, for about $375 million. The same year, they also bought parts of LSI's flash storage business from Avago for $450 million. In October 2015, Seagate bought Dot Hill Systems, a company that supplied software and hardware storage systems, for about $696 million.
