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Thursday, 23 August 2012 11:10

Seagate takes over Solyindra factory

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Solyindra a cylindrical solar panel factory, known because of a visit by President Barack Obama in 2010 promoting renewable energy businesses, has been taken over by Seagate. Even though the factory was not operating after an accident where one of the solar-panel makers imploded last year, Seagate is willing to make a deal for it. After Obama's visit they received a $535 million loan for construction of a new compound in Fremont, but that was not enough to avoid bankruptcy due to drastic solar panel price decrease worldwide.

“Seagate has entered into an agreement to purchase the building subject to a diligence review over the next 45 days whereby we can elect to either proceed with or cancel the purchase,” Seagate stated. “If and when the purchase is complete, we will provide our plans for use of the building.” The price Seagate will need to pay is yet to be determined, but it is believed that construction cost will be around $300 million.
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It is not certain if Seagate will use this factory for production or maybe shift its HQ from Cupertino, California. According to some rumors they have been scouting multiple locations in South Bay for some time. Beside the already built structure, there is still around 200,000 square feet available for construction on the 30 acre property.

[Ed – the move by Seagate is interesting and leads us to wonder if there is something in the manufacturing of solar panels that Seagate is interested in. The argument for a new Head Quarters is not enough to warrant the large investment that this would represent, but after looking into both technologies we wonder if there is a connection between the way solar panels are manufactured and Seagate’s new Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording technology that they showed off earlier this year. We have reached out to Seagate for more information and will update you if we receive an answer.]

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