- Commits to Provide up to $1.25 Billion in Financing
- Expects to Enter into a Long-Term NAND Supply Agreement
CUPERTINO, CA - Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a world leader in storage solutions, today announced its participation in the consortium led by Bain Capital Private Equity that has entered into an agreement with Toshiba Corporation to acquire Toshiba Memory Corporation ("Toshiba Memory"). In the agreement, Seagate has committed to provide up to $1.25 billion in financing to support the acquisition, to be provided at closing, which is expected by March 2018. In addition, Seagate expects to enter into a long-term NAND supply agreement with Toshiba Memory that will provide continuity of raw NAND for Seagate's expanding SSD product portfolio. Seagate expects this transaction to be accretive to its earnings.
"Over the course of many years, Seagate has developed an excellent long-term relationship with Toshiba Memory, and we have always been impressed with their consistent leadership in advancing NAND technology," said Steve Luczo, Seagate's chairman and chief executive officer. "We are pleased and honored to be part of the Bain Capital consortium and to help facilitate maintaining Toshiba Memory as a world leading independent NAND technology company. We know that Bain Capital is dedicated to the long-term success of Toshiba Memory and believe this acquisition is in the long-term best interests of our industry and of storage customers worldwide."
Luczo continued, "In the coming years, the storage industry will see significant data creation and increased storage needs, and we must be able to support those demands. Our NAND supply agreement with Toshiba Memory will enable Seagate to continue innovating and providing customers with storage solutions that fit their needs, be they HDDs, SSDs, or hybrid solutions."
"Seagate has developed its NAND storage technology portfolio over the last five years and today the Company has a broad offering of flash-based products that are ready to scale and grow across multiple markets," said Dave Mosley Seagate's president and chief operating officer. "Bolstering Seagate's NAND supply through a long-term agreement with Toshiba Memory increases the potential for meaningful future revenue growth from Seagate's SSD storage portfolio while providing significant value for our storage customers."
Centerview Partners is acting as financial advisor to Seagate and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corporation is acting as its legal advisor.
About Seagate
Seagate creates space for the human experience by innovating how data is stored, shared and used. Learn more at www.seagate.com. Follow Seagate on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Spiceworks, YouTube and subscribe to our blog.
© 2017 Seagate Technology LLC. All rights reserved. Seagate, Seagate Technology, and the Spiral logo are registered trademarks of Seagate Technology LLC in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. When referring to drive capacity, one gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one trillion bytes. Your computer’s operating system may use a different standard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions, and thus will not be available for data storage.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Some of the statements and assumptions included in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 or Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, each as amended, including, in particular, statements about our plans, strategies and prospects, continuity of long-term NAND supply, demand for our products, our product offerings, completion of Bain Capital’s acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corporation and estimates of industry growth. These statements identify prospective information and may include words such as “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “projects,” “may,” “will,” or negative of these words, variations of these words and comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date of this press release and are based on management’s current views and assumptions. These forward-looking statements are conditioned upon and also involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those anticipated by these forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors may be beyond our control and may pose a risk to our operating and financial condition, and include the risks that the acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corporation fails to be consummated and K.K. Pangea is unable to repay the preferred stock when due. For additional information, please see the “Risk Factors” section of the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 4, 2017.
