Seagate its to acquire rival hard disk drive maker Maxtor the two companies announced today, in a stock-swap valued at $1.9bn.

If shareholders and regulators back the deal, Seagate will offer 0.37 of its own shares for every Maxtor share issued, splitting the merged business 84:16 between Seagate and Maxtor shareholders.

The last couple of years have proved hard for hard disk makers, thanks to aggressive competition, falling margins and plunging prices. In October, Maxtor fell back into the red after a brief stint in profitability. It lost $7.1m on sales of $926m.

Seagate, the most successful of HDD companies of late, announced net income of $272m on sales of $2.09bn in what was effectively the same three-month period.

Once the acquisition has been completed - sometime in H2 2006 - the merged company will trade as Seagate and continue to be run by Seagate executives. Maxtor CEO and chairman, C S Park, gets a directorship in the merged operation. Until then, the two companies will operate as separate businesses.

Seagate said it is sticking by its previous forecast of Q2 FY2006 - due to end 31 December 2005 - sales of $2.2bn with earnings within the 53-57 cents a share range. ®

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