Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX), a world leader in hard disk drives and storage solutions, announced a private share redemption transaction with Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in the amount of 32.7 million ordinary shares, representing approximately 9% of Seagate’s shares outstanding as of the end of the fiscal first quarter 2014. Following the transaction, Samsung will continue to own approximately 12.5 million shares of Seagate and Dr. Seh-Woong Jeong, Executive Vice President at the Systems LSI Division of Samsung Electronics will remain on the Seagate Board of Directors.
“We are pleased that Samsung intends to continue to be a long-term strategic shareholder and valued business partner with Seagate. Our success with the Samsung hard disk drive products that we acquired has exceeded our expectations and we are very encouraged with our joint product development for enterprise solid state drives. We look forward to continuing to benefit from Dr. Jeong’s counsel and guidance as part of our Board of Directors and we are very optimistic about the future of our flash technology partnership,” said Steve Luczo, Seagate Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Luczo continued, “Returning value to shareholders is also a top priority for Seagate and investing in our own company is one of our greatest opportunities. Given the strength of our balance sheet and expected cash flow from operations, we remain committed to our share redemption and dividend plan. With this transaction, we are on track to meet our stated goal of returning approximately 70% of operating cash flow to shareholders this fiscal year while at the same time we continue to make strategic investments in our business to extend our leadership in cloud, mobile and open source storage technology.”
“Bringing value to the market and consumers has been the primary goal of our relationship with Seagate and we are pleased with our partnership’s success. Samsung looks forward to continuing our strategic ties with Seagate and delivering technology solutions for cloud and mobile applications,” said Oh-hyun Kwon, Vice Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics.
