Seagate Completes Lacie Acquisition
August 8, 2012 by Jim McCarthy 
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Seagate announced the completion of the Lacie acquisition. Read on for details.
We told you about Seagate’s pending purchase of Lacie here. On Friday, Seagate announced the completion of the acquisition of a controlling interest in Lacie. Here is what they announced on Friday:
CUPERTINO, CA and PARIS, FRANCE – Following their press releases issued on May 23, 2012 and June 14, 2012, Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) and LaCie S.A. (Euronext: LAC) announced today the completion of the purchase by Seagate of all of the shares of Philippe Spruch and his affiliate, representing 64.5% of the outstanding shares of LaCie for a provisional price of €4.05 per share. The price payable to Philippe Spruch and his affiliate may be increased by 3%, to €4.17 per share, in the event that within six months following today’s date, Seagate holds at least 95% of the share capital and voting rights of LaCie.
The completion of the transaction follows the required clearances from the French Ministry of Finance and the US and German Antitrust Authorities.
As a result of the completion of the transaction, Seagate intends to file in the coming weeks with the French Autorité des marches financiers an all-cash simplified tender offer on the remaining LaCie shares.
As previously announced, Ricol Lasteyrie & Associés has been appointed as independent expert by the Board of Directors of LaCie on May 23, 2012.
Following discussions with the Board of Directors of LaCie, in particular with the independent members, Seagate has increased the proposed offer price at which it will file its tender offer to €4.50 per LaCie share (without an additional 3% price supplement in the event that a squeeze-out procedure is implemented). Seagate may carry out a squeeze-out procedure at the same price of €4.50 per LaCie share if it were to hold at least 95% of the shares and voting rights of LaCie.
The Board of Directors welcomes the revised offer price and intends to support the revised offer as long as the final report of the independent expert affirms the valuation.
Seagate will continue to purchase the remaining shares with an all-cash offer to take out the remaining shareholders. Seagate’s rationale for the acquisition was offered up in our first article on this transaction:
“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,” said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and CEO. “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.”
“With the proliferation of devices and content being shared and stored today, consumer demand for high-quality branded storage solutions continues to grow,” said Philippe Spruch, LaCie’s chairman and CEO. “We are excited about the potential for this combination to benefit customers and employees by creating significant scale and opening up new markets. We look forward to making the resources of a much larger company available to our customers around the world.”
The fit seems sensible here; with Lacie’s strength in the consumer space and the additions to the premium NAS line, Seagate seems to be strengthening their position in the consolidating storage market.
Seagate shares closed at $32.59, up $0.69.
Seagate Acquires Controlling Interest in Lacie
