We have seen LaCie’s fair share of products and devices in the past, and the company does stock some pretty solid external data storage solutions, but today, word on the street has it that Seagate has decided to dip into their coffers to pick up a controlling interest in LaCie, which effectively places LaCie under Seagate’s corporate wings. Seagate has offered Philippe Spruch, LaCie’s chairman and CEO, as well as his affiliate, €4.05 per share in cash, minus a potential adjustment depending on the cash and debt position of LaCie at closing. This would basically mean a premium of 29% to LaCie’s average closing stock price over the 30 trading days up until May 22, 2012, which ain’t too shabby a deal, I must say. Will this change the way LaCie’s products work? Not dramatically, I am thinking it would somewhat be like how Dell purchased Alienware, and yet the latter does seem to run autonomously apart from the Dell machinery.
Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and CEO, says, “Seagate has a strong commitment to the growing consumer storage market and bringing the most dynamic products to market. LaCie has built an exceptional consumer brand by delivering exciting and innovative high-end products for many years. This transaction would bring a highly complementary set of capabilities to Seagate, significantly expand our consumer product offerings, add a premium-branded direct-attached storage line, strengthen our network-attached storage business line and enhance our capabilities in software development. We are also excited that Philippe, who is a true visionary and leader in the consumer storage business, would join Seagate to run our consumer storage products organization.” [Press Release]