Seagate to acquire stake in LaCie

Seagate Technology says it has agreed to purchase a 64.5 percent interest in LaCie, a French maker of computer storage products, for $186 million.The California-based hard drive maker says the deal will combine two highly complementary product and technology portfolios, adding LaCie's line of premium branded consumer storage solutions, network-attached storage solutions and software offerings to Seagate's array of mainstream consumer storage products."The combination would accelerate Seagate's growth strategy in the expanding consumer storage market, particularly in Europe and Japan, and add strong engineering and software development capabilities, as well as relationships with several key retailers," the company said Wednesday in a statement.Philippe Spruch, LaCie's chairman and CEO, would join Seagate and lead the company's consumer storage products organization.The transaction is subject to regulatory approval in the United States, France and Germany, Seagate said.