List Of Defunct Hard Disk Manufacturers
It has been estimated that over 200 companies were hard disk drive manufacturers at one time or another. Besides competing on features such as hard disk (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 and acquisition. As of March 2012 independent manufacturers were Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital. The charts at the bottom of this article show the acquistions between 1988 and 2012, at a quick glance.
The following is a list of notable defunct HDD manufacturers:
- Alps Electric – left industry
- Amcodyne
- Ampex
- Apple, Inc. – produced the proprietary Lisa 20MB Widget drive in house in 1984 for less than two years before leaving the hard drive business.
- Atasi Corp. – bankrupt
- Areal Technology – acquired by Tomen Corp in 1993
- Aura Associates
- Avatar Systems
- BASF
- Bryant Computer Products
- Burroughs Corporation – merged with Sperry Corporation to form Unisys in 1986
- CalComp
- Calluna Technologies
- Century Data
- Cogito Systems – bankrupt
- Comport
- Computer Memories Inc. (CMI) – left industry in 1986
- Conner Peripherals – merged with Seagate in 1996
- Conner Technologies – merged with ExcelStor in 2001
- Control Data Corporation / Imprimis – sold hard disk drive business to Seagate in 1989
- Cornice LLC – bankrupt in 2007
- Data General – left industry
- Data Products
- Data Recording Instruments (DRI)
- Data Storage International – bankrupt
- Diablo Systems
- Digital Equipment Corporation – sold hard disk drive business to Quantum in 1994
- DZU (of Bulgaria)
- Epson – left industry
- Evotek
- ExcelStor Technology – left industry
- Fuji Electric
- Fujitsu – HDD division acquired by Toshiba in July 2009
- General Electric –
- Gigastorage
- Halo Data – startup making mini disk drives for digital cameras went bankrupt in 2001
- Hewlett-Packard - 1976 to 1996, left industry
- Hitachi Global Storage Technologies – sold to Western Digital in 2012 for 4.8 billion US dollars
- Hokushin Electric Works
- Honeywell Bull
- IBM – hard disk drive business acquired by Hitachi Global Storage Technologies in 2002
- Information Storage Systems
- Integral Peripherals – first rigid 1.8" drive; bankrupt in 1998
- International Memories (IMI) – spun off by Memorex in 1977; left industry in 1985
- Iomega – left industry
- Itel
- JT Storage – bankrupt in 1999
- JVC – left industry
- Kalok – bankrupt in 1994
- Kyocera – left industry
- LaCie – acquired by Seagate Technology in 2012
- LaPine Technologies
- Marshall Laboratories
- Matsushita
- Maxtor – acquired by Seagate in 2006
- Memorex – acquired by Burroughs 1981 and then merged into Unisys 1986; HDD division shut down in 1988
- Microcomputer Memories – left the industry
- Micropolis Corporation – bankrupt in 1997
- Microscience International – bankrupt in 1992
- MiniScribe – bankrupt and then acquired by Maxtor in 1990
- Ministor Peripherals – first mobile 1.8" drive; bankrupt in 1998
- Mitsubishi – left industry
- NEC – left industry
- Nippon Peripherals
- Nomai
- Olivetti
- Philips
- Plus Development – Subsidiary of Quantum; created Hardcard; absorbed back into Quantum 1992
- Potter Instrument
- PrairieTek – first 2.5" rigid HDD; bankrupt in 1991
- Priam Systems – sold product line to Prima International in 1991
- Quantum Corporation – sold hard disk drive business to Maxtor in 2000
- Rahm Rotationals - renamed and merged in 1994 to Tamir Tech (purchased by Quantum 1995)
- Raymond Engineering
- Rodime – first 3.5" rigid HDD; 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
- Samsung – HDD business acquired by Seagate for $1.375 billion in 2011
- Seiko Epson
- Sequel
- Siemens
- Sony
- Storage Technology Corporation (StorageTek or STK) – left industry
- Syquest – bankrupt in 1998; some patents acquired by Iomega. Re-emerged selling cartridges for their previously-discontinued products.
- Tandon Corporation – acquired by Western Digital in 1988
- Texas Instruments – left industry
- Tulin Corporation – bankrupt
- Vertex Peripherals – acquired by Priam in 1985
- Wang Laboratories – left industry
Read more about List Of Defunct Hard Disk Manufacturers: Acquisition/merger Charts of Major Brands
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