Seagate Wants a Part of Intel's Flash-memory Firm

After stating that it would introduce SSD storage products for consumers "if the cost-per-gigabyte comes down to 10 cents," Seagate is reportedly pursuing a buyout of Intel's 49% stake in IM Flash Technologies. IM Flash is a NAND flash memory vendor that is currently part of a joint venture with Intel and Micron Technology.

According to an analyst report issued just the other day, Seagate is believed to become a prime suitor for Intel's share of IM Flash Technologies, as part of the storage manufacturer's interest in expanding its business by offering SSDs in addition to its already available physical disk drives.

Seagate has already declared that it doesn't believe the storage market to be yet ready for Solid State Drives, at least not in the consumer segment. This is the reason for which the company is not taking into consideration the release of any flash-based storage solutions, or at least not so anytime soon. Another reason for that is to be found in that current SSD technology doesn't allow the development of higher capacity solid-state drives, according to Bill Watkins, Western Digital's CEO.

Still, the storage manufacturer has no plans whatsoever of standing on the sideline, arms crossed, watching how competitors are releasing their own SSD-based products. It is here that we can find an explanation for the rumor of a potential buyout of Intel's 49% stake in IM Flash Technologies, and why it just might be true. Especially since IM Flash Technologies has had a busy year so far, announcing the fruits of several NAND flash projects. On top of this, Intel is now considered a potential "big player" in the storage market, after last month's unveiling of a 34-nanometer, 32-gigabit NAND flash memory chip.

At the moment, Seagate is one of the leading manufacturers of computer storage products. Since Western Digital, one of the company's main competitors, has not made any announcements regarding a future release of SSDs, this would leave Seagate with enough time to develop its own flash-based storage product.