Samsung is looking to sell its hard drive business

Published on 04-18-2011 03:49 PM

KOREAN ELECTRONICS GIANT Samsung is apparently considering putting its hard drive manufacturing operation up for sale amid financial difficulties.
According to a report at the Wall Street Journal the division is worth around $1.5 billion but Samsung might be willing to accept offers below $1 billion. Seagate, which is one of the largest hard drive makers, is a potential buyer.

When questioned, the company replied, "Samsung continuously reviews various business opportunities. We do not comment on speculation regarding our business."

We also contacted Seagate for a response but it refused to comment.

According to harddrivebenchmark.net Samsung has a 14.6 per cent share of the hard drive market, which makes it the third largest player. The other leader in the hard drive market is Western Digital, which bought Hitachi's hard drive business last month for $4.3 billion.
Samsung is supposedly struggling financially at a two-year low after sales of TVs and flat screens fell. The sale of the hard drive side of the company should give it some cash to invest in other, more profitable areas of technology.

Pressure on the hard drive industry could well stem from the increasing popularity of devices like tablets. These types of mobile products use flash memory rather than magnetic disk drives.

Source: The Inquirer

Categories:
Hardware

6 Comments

duke0102 - 04-18-2011, 04:42 PM
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I love Samsung drives. There recent F3 drives are great, I just hope the buyer doesn't balls it up

bobbintb - 04-18-2011, 06:26 PM
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i was gonna say but the article already mentioned WD buying Hitachi. i think this will bring us down to only 3 drive manufactures in the world. i dont feel good about what that will do to the market.

shipwreck - 04-18-2011, 08:11 PM
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I really like Samsung drives, too, my prefered brand for years. I very much dislike Seagate, who are supposed to take over. This would be a disaster really, I'd switch back to WD if that happens.

Cabalo - 04-18-2011, 10:40 PM
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It's a pity if they go.
Personally, I only use WD and Samsung.
I had lots of problems with Maxtor and Seagate in the past.

duke0102 - 04-19-2011, 09:27 AM
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Maybe they've got big plans for the SSD market?
I agree with Shipwreck though, had bad experiences with Seagate so I'd never knowingly buy one again/

shipwreck - 04-19-2011, 11:37 AM
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It has actually happened, Samsung sold their hard drive branch to Seagate!

It will still take a while before the deal is done and Seagate have the ok from the anti-trust authorities. I'll stock up on Samsung 204UIs in the coming months, that's for sure...