• Seagate is position to purchase Intevac, a specialist in HAMR force production
• HAMR is seen as the technology which goes to force HDDs to 100TB+
• The whisk is a well-known blow to Western Digital and Toshiba’s private HAMR plans

Seagate is charging ahead in its quest to safe clear-sized HDDs. Towards the quit of January 2025, the arena’s finest laborious force vendor launched a 36TB mannequin – arriving merely a month after it debuted a 32TB one – and it printed at the time that a 60TB force is on its scheme.

Now, the company has announced plans to purchase Intevac, a company identified for making sputtering programs that prepare extremely-thin layers of arena cloth, corresponding to an iron-platinum alloy (FePt), to HDD platters. This developed deposition assignment enables for the introduction of magnetic layers with better uniformity, improved signal-to-noise ratios, and fewer defects, potentially ensuing in denser data storage. Over 65% of the arena’s laborious disk output is produced using Intevac’s programs, which works out to extra than 50 million disks per month. The technology is regarded as a truly powerful for Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR) and Warmth-Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR).

HAMR, which lowers magnetic resistance by heating the force, enables data to be written in smaller, extra loyal bits and can possess to peaceful seemingly to be a key ingredient in HDDs reaching 100TB capacities. By shopping Intevac, Seagate has potentially scored a tall safe over its competitors. Seagate is Intevac’s fundamental buyer, however Western Digital is one too, and it, alongside with Toshiba, has HAMR drives in the works.

Unanimously licensed

The definitive settlement will watch Seagate purchase Intevac in an all-money transaction for $4 per half. Intevac will also pay a one-time special dividend of $0.052 per half (bringing the combination consideration to Intevac stockholders to $4.052 per half). Individually, Intevac’s Board of Administrators has declared a abnormal quarterly dividend of $0.05 per half, which shall be paid on March 13, 2025, to Intevac stockholders.

As a results of the whisk, Intevac will no longer retain its earnings name, which had been position for February 25.

Intevac’s Board of Administrators has unanimously (and unsurprisingly) licensed the transaction and urged that each stockholders soft their shares in the offer.

The acquisition is predicted to cease in slack March or early April 2025, although, as Blocks and Files aspects out, “Western Digital or Resonac [which counts Toshiba as a customer] or both also can object to the deal on diminished competitors grounds, which also can prolong its completion or even prevent the transaction from taking position.”

That’s no longer going obviously – Seagate can possess to peaceful no longer possess moved forward with the acquisition if its attorneys had been looking forward to concerns of that magnitude.

Seagate shall be in a position to expand HAMR force production following the acquisition, however the whisk also can abate Western Digital and Toshiba’s efforts in that department, as it could per chance probably perhaps per chance point out shopping the sputtering tools they need from Seagate, a well-known rival.

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Wayne Williams is a freelancer writing news for TechRadar Expert. He has been writing about computer programs, technology, and the gather for 30 years. In that time he wrote for quite loads of of the UK’s PC magazines, and launched, edited and printed a resolution of them too.