More moving and shaking took place in the storage industry today, as Seagate and LaCie announced an exclusive agreement whereby the former will acquire a controlling interest in the latter. Specifically, Seagate plans to purchase from Philippe Spruch, LaCie's chairman and CEO, and his affiliate, all of their shares, giving Seagate a 64.5 percent stake in LaCie.

Without any price supplements or fuzzy math of any kind, the deal is worth $186 million in total equity value. If the deal goes through, Seagate would be paying a 29 percent premium to LaCie's average closing stock price in the transaction.


"Seagate has a strong commitment to the growing consumer storage market and bringing the most dynamic products to market. LaCie has built an exceptional consumer brand by delivering exciting and innovative high-end products for many years. This transaction would bring a highly complementary set of capabilities to Seagate, significantly expand our consumer product offerings, add a premium-branded direct-attached storage line, strengthen our network-attached storage business line and enhance our capabilities in software development," said Steve Luczo, Seagate chairman, president and CEO.

As part of the deal, Spruch would not only pocket a ton of cash for selling his stock, but he would also join Seagate and lead the company's consumer storage products organization.