Thread regarding Seagate Technology Inc. layoffs

Seagate spend lot of money to buyback a stock thrown by Samsung. CEO was disparage when WD's buy Sandisk. Failed to make a join venture with hynix. C level guys are totally fool. VP's and group leader was just interested in survive them selves. Managers ruined company then sacrificed employees. Down sizing and Lay off was destiny. But, they didn't respect employees. Just treat as pawn on chess board.

RE @OFX78zl-1gkr

Well said. In my opinion the only safe route for Seagate is to downsize, reduce the millions spent on R&D and concentrate on the part of the storage industry that will continue to use HDD. It will be a reduced market but Seagate may well be the only supplier for that Market. However as you stated the management would have to admit it's failings over the last few years and the share holders might not take too kindly to this admission of failure and we all know how Seagate likes to put the shareholders before sensible business decisions. The longer they delay these tough decisions the harder it will be to steer the Seagate ship from floundering on the rocks. One last thought. If WD drop their HDD prices using the extra income from their SSD business they could speed up the end of STX and ensure that they will be the sole player in the remaining HDD business. If I was the CEO of WD I would give that some serious thought and finally finish off the last real competitor in the HDD business..

Management will never directly address option 2 (owning up to 'right-sizing' Seagate), not due to their (considerable) egos, but it will tell stock market investors that there really is no long-term future. HAMR is effectively irrelevant as a potential extension of HDD technology and still serves as a cover story for the lack of a viable path beyond shrinking the company. The executives are still part of the company and want to preserve their bonuses as related to the share price.

I agree they should have taken the opportunity to buy Sandisk or Micron to get into the SSD space. That chance is over.

For option 2, they really need a 100% outside management team to come in here and do what is needed. IT won't happen. There will be no 4 - 5 billion Seagate in 5 years for HDD. It will be bankrupt on the debt load it can't pay off.

RE: @OFX78zl-1nzg

I disagree with you comment that the executives are doing what is necessary. SSD Technology was slowly replacing HDD, but now it has accelerated greatly and pushing well into the areas where it was thought that HDD had safe and secure advantage.

The executives miscalculated this shift and continued to invest and hope to find growth in HDD. In my opinion they could have done two things -- 1) Invest in other memory technologies (SSD) via acquisition OR 2) Start the process of right sizing the company towards the $4-$5Billion steady state in 2020/22 time-frame. They are doing neither. They did not go into SSD (like WD) when they had the golden chance and instead doubled down on HDD and went for Maxtor, Samsung HDD and other acquisitions which turned out to be major fiascos. Now they are investing heavily in technologies like HAMR etc.. which even if it pans out, I am not sure will rescue the HDD product line.

Unfortunately the window for Option 1 has now closed down. They can still go down the 2nd path. They need to clearly communicate the vision, which they have demonstrated that they cannot do as it will mean admitting their own failures. They should shut down expensive research programs and move towards a stable business path making HDD product for the residual memory market that will still rely on HDD and focus on structuring the company towards that goal. It will take guts to lay this vision out and the pain that this will cause to the employees and move rapidly instead of prolonging the agony.

If you're comment is serious, then I would...

Fire the CEO immediately and then every other C level that has had a voice in the destruction of the company. The only thing that surpasses the number of layoffs Seagate has had in the past 15 years is the number of failed lane changes the C levels have made.

A perfect example..

Dave Watkins just about single handily ruined Seagate and though the current CEO (Luczo) had a moment of clarity when he finally fired Watkins, he's the one that put Watkins in charge in the first place and Luczo is the one that approved Watkins organizational and product plans while Luczo was a chairman of the board.

Furthermore, Steve Luczo has done nothing but orchestrate and oversee the slow death of a once proud and vital American company before and after the Watkins years. Luczo has driven Seagate into the ground and harmed untold numbers of people with his poor decisions, incessant restructuring, offshoring, and layoffs.

Of course, the board and the investors might just love Luczo and his hatchet.

Actually, the executives are doing what is necessary. HDD technology is mature and hitting natural physical limits, while facing slow replacement by SSD technology. It won't immediately replace HDD in every instance, but the trend is inescapable. Given that Seagate will be facing reduced demand for its products, it is shrinking its size to "rightsize" the company for its market. What the executives haven't demonstrated is a vision for where the company can go from here. They could have gone into SSD earlier but did not, because they chose to appease shareholders with dividends and avoid massive capital investment in a new technology. The soon to be former CEO has a singular talent for buying companies to demonstrate Seagate's investors that he is doing something positive, despite the fact that either the purchases make no sense, or that management does a horrible job of incorporating it into the rest of the company.

In 5-10 years, Seagate will be a four to five billion dollar company that still operates profitably because it has been shrunk to an appropriate size for its market. The chance to branch out into other forms of memory have been squandered. The real problem shows up around 2022-2023, when Seagate either has to pay off or roll over its huge debt. I doubt the market will give Seagate a break on its interest rate to a company that will shrink to half its size.

Seagate already dug a hole deep enough. Now just need to jump in and have someone else bury it.

I would have sold to Micron when the chance was presented.

I think, this rat is fool.

Company is mischief maker. Company want be split employees to make scapegoat easier.

"Stay calm until fire you."

Ive worked at Seagate for over 10yrs. I only own WD hard drives. Would never buy a Seagate product.

How about this, how do you produce a quality product with employees that hate your company. Shareholders are paid too high of a dividend and the employees pay for it with no raises and no investment in equipment and layoffs. It's not sustainable. Eventually there will be nothing left to gut. Then what?

Another corporate shill posting again.