14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that Seagate may have a harder time at becoming a private company than some may have expected, as private investors do not seem too eager to acquire the company.
Some time ago, Seagate, the world's second greatest supplier of hard disk drives, expressed its intention to become a private company.
The outfit did not give any specific reasons as to why it desired such a turn of events, though assumptions may be made based on the company's history.
For example, back in the year 2,000, Seagate found itself in a sort of financial turmoil amidst heavy reorganization that had a negative effect on its stability at the time.
Of course, the company has since recovered and is now operating fairly efficiently, although its stock has fallen since January.
In fact, it seems to have managed to sell 500 million HDDs in the span of two years, bringing its all-time sales to 1.5 billion.
Recently, it was revealed that most private investors are not particularly interested in acquiring Seagate.
Apparently, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR) lost interest, as did Bain Capital, which leaves only TGP Capital (Texas Pacific Group).
Granted, if TGP manages to get a hold of some equity partners, it may very well still manage to buy the well known HDD brand.
As before, Seagate has kept silent about why exactly it wants to be bought off, though the outlook for the following years may have something to do with it.
Since solid state drives have been growing in popularity, especially on the enterprise market, the position of HDDs in this sector is beginning to be eroded.
Cloud services will also begin to be used more and more, which basically means that either a buyout or a reorganization of a different sort might be exactly what Seagate needs in order to be prepared for what will come later.