Seagate Decides To Stay Public

With mergers going off left and right in the tech space, particularly in the storage area, it is a bit of a switch to hear about a deal that does not happen. But that is the case for disk drive maker Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX), which announced after the close on Monday that the board had decided to end discussions of selling the company to private equity investors. 

Where was the Bar?
Although the company had publicly acknowledged some indications of interest in taking the country private back in October, the recent rumors were that potential deals were falling apart as private equity groups balked at the price. There has been no public discussion of what Seagate believed was a "fair price", but it would not be surprising if $20 was the starting point that the board had in mind. After all, even though companies like 3Par ,being acquired by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ), and Isilon Systems (Nasdaq:ISLN), being acquired by EMC (NYSE:EMC), are very different than Seagate, there might nevertheless have been an element of "storage is storage" mentality and an expectation from the board of a solid premium. 


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