The Commerce Commission has published a statement of preliminary issues relating to an application received from Seagate Technology Plc seeking clearance to acquire certain assets of the hard disk drive business of Samsung Electronics Co. Limited.

Seagate Technology Plc and Samsung Electronics Co. Limited both manufacture and supply hard disk drives worldwide.

The statement of preliminary issues outlines the key competition issues the Commission currently considers will be important in deciding whether or not to grant clearance. The Commission's statement of preliminary issues and the public version of the application are on the Commission's website at: www.comcom.govt.nz/clearances-register.

The Commission invites submissions from parties who consider that they have information relevant to the Commission's consideration of this matter. Submissions can be sent to registrar@comcom.govt.nz with the reference Seagate/Samsung in the subject line of your email or to PO Box 2351, Wellington 6140 by Friday 22 July 2011.

 

Background

Seagate Technology Plc is active worldwide in the design and manufacture of a broad range of computer storage devices, consisting of hard disk drives and hybrid hard disk drives that are used in a wide range of electronic devices, and sold to distributors, resellers and retailers.

Samsung Electronics Co. Limited has a business division that also designs, manufactures and sells hard disk drives on a worldwide basis for use in electronic devices, and to distributors, resellers and retailers.