Seagate Technology (http://www.seagate.com) and Samsung Electronics (http://www.samsung.com) have entered into a definitive agreement under which Seagate and Samsung will significantly expand and strengthen their strategic relationship by further aligning their respective ownership, investments and key technologies. Major elements of the agreement include:
° Samsung combining its hard disk drive (HDD) operations into Seagate;
° Extending and enhancing the existing patent cross-license agreement between the companies;
° A NAND flash memory supply agreement under which Samsung will provide Seagate with its market-leading semiconductor products for use in Seagate’s enterprise solid state drives (SSDs), solid state hybrid drives and other products;
° A disk drive supply agreement under which Seagate will supply disk drives to Samsung for computers, notebooks and consumer electronics;
° Expanded cooperation between the companies to co-develop enterprise storage solutions
Samsung receiving significant equity ownership in Seagate;
° A shareholder agreement under which an executive of Samsung will be nominated to join Seagate’s Board of Directors.
The combined value of these transactions and agreements is approximately US$1.375 billion, which will be paid by Seagate to Samsung in the form of 50% stock and 50% cash.
