List of defunct hard disk manufacturers
Diagram of consolidation
It has been estimated that over 200 companies were hard disk drive manufacturers in the past. Besides competing on features such as hard disk drive (HDD) data density and latencies, many of those companies started to support new, smaller form factors that enabled the ever-reducing physical sizes of computing devices. Most of that industry has vanished through bankruptcy or mergers and acquisitions. Surviving manufacturers are Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital.
The following is a list of known defunct HDD manufacturers:
- Alps Electric – left industry
- Amcodyne[1]
- Ampex[1]
- Apple – produced the proprietary Lisa 20 MB Widget drive in house in 1984 for less than two years before leaving the hard drive business
- Atasi Corp. – bankrupt
- Areal Technology[1] – acquired by Tomen Corp in 1993[2]
- Aura Associates[1]
- Avatar Systems[1]
- BASF[1]
- Bryant Computer Products[1]
- Burroughs Corporation[1][3] – merged with Sperry Corporation to form Unisys in 1986
- CalComp[1]
- Calluna Technologies[1]
- Century Data[1]
- Cogito Systems – bankrupt
- Comport[1]
- Computer Memories Inc.[1] (CMI) – left industry in 1986
- Conner Peripherals[1] – merged with Seagate in 1996
- Conner Technologies – merged with ExcelStor in 2001
- Control Data Corporation / Imprimis[1] – sold hard disk drive business to Seagate in 1989
- Cornice LLC – bankrupt in 2007[4]
- Data General – left industry
- Data Products[1]
- Data Recording Instruments (DRI)[1]
- Data Storage International – bankrupt
- Diablo Systems[1]
- Digital Equipment Corporation[1] – sold hard disk drive business to Quantum in 1994
- DZU (of Bulgaria)[1]
- Epson – left industry
- Evotek
- ExcelStor Technology – left industry
- Fuji Electric[1]
- Fujitsu[1] – HDD division acquired by Toshiba in July 2009[5]
- General Electric[1] –
- Gigastorage[1]
- Halo Data – startup making mini disk drives for digital cameras went bankrupt in 2001
- Hewlett-Packard[6] - 1976 to 1996, left industry
- Hitachi 1967 - 2003, see next item
- Hitachi Global Storage Technologies[1] – 2002 merger of Hitachi and IBM disk drive businesses, sold to Western Digital in 2012 with part of 3.5″ manufacturing facilities going to Toshiba[7][8][9][10]
- Hokushin Electric Works[1]
- Honeywell Bull[1]
- IBM[1] – hard disk drive business acquired by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in 2002
- Information Storage Systems[1] Acquired by Itel, then Univac and finally CDC[11]
- Integral Peripherals[1] – first rigid 1.8" drive; bankrupt in 1998
- International Memories (IMI) – spun off by Memorex in 1977; left industry in 1985
- Iomega[1] – left industry
- ISOT/ИЗОТ (of Bulgaria)[nb 1]
- JT Storage[1] – bankrupt in 1999
- JVC[1] – left industry
- Kalok[1] – bankrupt in 1994
- Kyocera – left industry
- LaCie – acquired by Seagate Technology in 2012[12]
- LaPine Technologies[1]
- Marshall Laboratories[1]
- Matsushita[1] - left industry in 2004
- Maxtor[1] – acquired by Seagate in 2006
- Memorex[1] – acquired by Burroughs 1981 and then merged into Unisys 1986; HDD division shut down in 1988
- Microcomputer Memories[1] – left the industry
- Micropolis Corporation[1] – bankrupt in 1997
- Microscience International[1] – bankrupt in 1992
- MiniScribe[1] – bankrupt and then acquired by Maxtor in 1990
- Ministor Peripherals[1] – first mobile 1.8" drive; bankrupt in 1998
- Mitsubishi[1] – left industry
- NEC[1] – left industry
- Newbury Data Recording
- Nippon Peripherals[1]
- Nomaï[1]
- Olivetti[1]
- Philips[1]
- Plus Development – Subsidiary of Quantum; created Hardcard; absorbed back into Quantum 1992
- Potter Instrument[1]
- PrairieTek[1] – first 2.5" rigid HDD; bankrupt in 1991
- Priam Systems[1] – sold product line to Prima International in 1991
- Quantum Corporation[1] – sold hard disk drive business to Maxtor in 2001
- Raymond Engineering[1]
- Rodime[1] – first 3.5" rigid HDD;[1] shut down manufacturing in 1991; licensed its patents until the patent business was sold for $1.5M in July 2003. The company was then the subject of a reverse merger and became Sportech PLC.
- Sagem[1]
- Samsung[1] – HDD business acquired by Seagate for $1.4 billion in 2011[13]
- Seiko Epson[1]
- Sequel[1]
- Siemens[1]
- Sony[1]
- Storage Technology Corporation (StorageTek or STK) – left industry
- Syquest[1] – bankrupt in 1998; some patents acquired by Iomega. Re-emerged selling cartridges for their previously-discontinued products.
- Tandon Corporation[1] – acquired by Western Digital in 1988[1]
- TEAC – left industry
- Texas Instruments – left industry
- Tulin Corporation[1] – bankrupt
- Venturi International
- Vertex Peripherals – acquired by Priam in 1985
- Wang Laboratories – left industry
Acquisition/merger charts of major brands
Seagate
|____________________________________________________________________
| | | | |
Control Data:1989 Conner:1996 Maxtor:2006 Samsung:2011 LaCie:2012
______________________________|
| |
MiniScribe : 1990 Quantum :2000
__________________|
| |
Plus:1992 DEC:1994
Western Digital
|_____________
| |
Tandon:1988 Hitachi:2012 (2.5″, SSD & part of 3.5" facilities)
|
IBM:2002
Toshiba
|_____________
| |
Fujitsu:2009 Hitachi:2012 (part of 3.5″ facilities)
|
IBM:2002
See also
Notes
- ↑ The Bulgarian manufacturer ISOT manufactured a 10 MB harddisk drive CM 5508 in 1989. It seems to have been used in the Iskra-1030 personal computer built in 1989 as well. The CM 5508 drive was also available under the ИЗОТ name.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 McKendrick, David (November 1997). "Sustaining Competitive Advantage in Global Industries: Technological Change and Foreign Assembly in the Hard Disk Drive Industry". Archived from the original on 2014-02-09. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
- ↑ http://www.linksv.com/compSummary/449/ArealTechnology
- ↑ "Merger fallout puts Memorex across Atlantic". Computerworld. November 10, 1986. Retrieved 2011-08-03.
- ↑ http://www.storagesearch.com/cornice.html Storage Search on Cornice
- ↑ http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2009_04/pr3001.htm
- ↑ http://www.hpmuseum.net/divisions.php?did=16
- ↑ Smith, Ryan (2012-03-06), Western Digital To Sell Hitachi's 3.5" Hard Drive Business To Toshiba, Complete Hitachi Buyout, retrieved 2012-12-30,
Western Digital will be allowed to acquire Hitachi’s 2.5” and SSD businesses, but not the 3.5” business. Instead Western Digital will be selling that business to Toshiba – factories and all – along with granting licenses for the necessary patents, which would allow Toshiba to effectively continue in the 3.5” market from where Hitachi left off. This would firmly establish Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba as the 3 major players in the hard drive business across all product segments.
- ↑ http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/storage/display/20120229054302_Toshiba_and_Western_Digital_Swap_HDD_Manufacturing_Facilities.html
- ↑ http://www.techpowerup.com/161437/toshiba-acquires-wd-hdd-manufacturing-equipment-and-transfer-of-hdd-manufacturing.html
- ↑ http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomcoughlin/2012/03/09/a-very-long-engagement-western-digital-finally-acquires-hitachis-hdd-business/
- ↑ Information Technology Industry TimeLine, see 1971 entry
- ↑ http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/23/seagate-to-buy-lacie/
- ↑ "Seagate Completes Acquisition of Samsung's Hard Disk Drive Business" (Press release). 2011-12-19. Retrieved 2015-08-19.
External links
- The dynamics of the HDD industry development in Singapore
- James N. Porter, Disk Drives’ Evolution - 100th Anniversary Conference: Magnetic Recording and Information Storage, Santa Clara University, 1998-12-14, includes a list of former harddisk manufacturers dated 1999-05-14 (archived)
- HISTORY: List of 221 Companies in HDD Manufacturing Since 1956 by Jean-Jacques Maleval, 2013-03-28
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