Seagate: Reports of My Sale to the Chinese Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
by John Paczkowski
Posted on August 28, 2007 at 11:16 AM PT
U.S. officials fretting over the potential national-security risks that might accompany the foreign acquisition of disk-drive maker Seagate Technology can rest easy. The company’s not for sale.
Three days after the New York Times reported that an unnamed Chinese technology company was intent on acquiring Seagate, the hard-drive maker said that wasn’t really the case. “Seagate is not for sale,” said company spokesman Woody Monroy.
Seems the acquisition over which Seagate CEO Bill Watkins said “the U.S. government is freaking out” is largely a hypothetical one. “In general there has been speculation or discussion that there are some Chinese companies that would be interested in buying an American disk-drive company,” Monroy said. “I think Bill [Watkins] was speaking in general [terms to the New York Times]. There’s nothing, from our perspective, more to say about that other than to clarify that Seagate is not for sale. We haven’t had any offers or bids made for Seagate.”
