Editing Maxtor

{{Short description|American computer hard disk drive manufacturer}}
{{Distinguish|text=the video card manufacturer [[Matrox]]}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox company
| name             = Maxtor Corporation
| trading          = 
| logo             = Maxtor-Logo.svg
| type             = [[Public company|Public]]
| traded_as        = {{NYSE was|MXO}}
| founder          = James McCoy, Jack Swartz, and Raymond Niedzwiecki
| defunct          = {{end date and age|2006|06|30}} (company)
| fate             = Acquired by [[Seagate Technology]]
| area_served      = Worldwide
| key_people       = James McCoy, Jack Swartz, and Raymond Niedzwiecki (founders)
| industry         = [[Technology]]
| products         = [[Hard disk drive]]s
| owner            = [[Seagate Technology]]
| num_employees    =
| divisions        =
| subsid           =
| footnotes        =
| vector_logo      =
| foundation       = {{start date and age|1982}}<!-- This parameter modifies "Founded". -->
| location_city    = [[Milpitas, California]]
| location_country = [[United States]]
| location         = 500 McCarthy Boulevard
| origins          =
| company_slogan   =
}}

'''Maxtor Corporation''' was an American computer [[hard disk drive]] manufacturer. Founded in 1982, it was the third largest [[hard disk drive]] manufacturer in the world before being purchased by [[Seagate Technology|Seagate]] in 2006.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=Seagate_Technology_To__Acquire_Maxtor_Corporation&vgnextoid=1e8a814fef83e010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD|title=Seagate Technology To Acquire Maxtor Corporation|publisher=Seagate|date=21 December 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080913160547/http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=Seagate_Technology_To__Acquire_Maxtor_Corporation&vgnextoid=1e8a814fef83e010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD|archive-date=13 September 2008}}</ref> It was revived as a brand in 2016.

Maxtor is a [[portmanteau]] of '''max'''imum and s'''tor'''age.

== History ==

=== Overview ===
In 1981, three former [[IBM]] employees began searching for funding, and Maxtor was founded the following year. In 1983, Maxtor shipped its first product, the Maxtor XT-1140. In 1985, Maxtor filed its [[initial public offering]] and started trading on the [[New York Stock Exchange]] as "MXO." Maxtor bought hard drive manufacturer [[MiniScribe]] in 1990. Maxtor was getting close to bankruptcy in 1992 and closed its engineering operations in [[San Jose, California]], in 1993. In 1996, Maxtor introduced its DiamondMax line of hard drives with [[Digital signal processor|DSP]]-based architecture. In 2000, Maxtor acquired [[Quantum Corp.|Quantum]]'s hard drive division, which gave Maxtor the [[parallel ATA|ATA/133]] hard drive interface and helped Maxtor revive its server hard drive market. In 2006, Maxtor was acquired by [[Seagate Technology|Seagate]].<ref name=":0">{{cite news |title=Seagate buys Maxtor for about $1.9 billion |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10558135 |accessdate=November 24, 2024 |work=NBC News |date=December 21, 2005 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Seagate Buys Maxtor, Gains Facilities, Market Share |url=https://www.forbes.com/2006/05/23/seagate-0523markets01.html |accessdate=November 24, 2024 |work=Forbes |date=May 23, 2006 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Early financing ===
[[File:5.25 inch MFM hard disk drive.JPG|thumb|An early Maxtor hard drive (right) with a more modern laptop hard drive and coins (front) for size comparison]]

The Maxtor founders, James McCoy, Jack Swartz, and Raymond Niedzwiecki—graduates of the [[San Jose State University]] School of Engineering and former employees of IBM—began the search for funding in 1981. In early 1982, B.J. Cassin and Chuck Hazel (Bay Partners) provided the initial $3 million funding and the company officially began operations on July 1, 1982. In February 1983, it shipped its first product to Convergent Technology and immediately received an additional $5.5 million in its second round of funding. The company also began negotiations with the EDB ([[Economic Development Board]]) of Singapore for favorable terms before committing to Singapore as its offshore manufacturing location. The DBS ([[Development Bank of Singapore]]) agreed to provide financing to help grow the company in Singapore. In 1983, the company established a liaison and [[procurement]] office in Tokyo, headed by Tatsuya Yamamoto.

Maxtor's product architecture used eight disks; 15 surfaces recorded data and the final surface was where the servo track information was located. The company developed its own [[Hard_disk_drive#Spindle|spindle]] motor, which was fitted within the casting containing the disks. This was a major departure as the spindle motor was usually mounted external to the disks. The first product was designed to provide 190&nbsp;MB of storage, but delays in getting magnetic heads to the Maxtor design resulted in the company taking what was available, and the first drive—the XT-1140—was shipped with a capacity of only 140&nbsp;MB. The company received an additional round of financing of approximately $37 million in 1984 before going public in 1986,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Maxtor seeks market gains |url=https://www.forbes.com/1998/07/15/feat.html |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> with [[Goldman Sachs]] as the prime [[underwriter]].

=== Expansion ===
In December 1986, Maxtor acquired U.S. Design Corporation, a loss-making manufacturer of data storage subsystems for microcomputers, for $16.1&nbsp;million in a [[stock swap]]. The acquisition was finalized in January 1987.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=December 22, 1986 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/398090949/ | title=Maxtor Plans Acquisition For $16.1 Million in Stock | work=The Wall Street Journal | publisher=Dow Jones & Company | page=1 | via=ProQuest}}</ref><ref name=buys>{{cite journal | last=Staff writer | date=June 30, 1987 | url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/229087854/ | title=Maxtor Corp. Buys Storage Dimensions | work=San Francisco Chronicle | page=42 | via=ProQuest | quote=Maxtor Corp., a San Jose-based maker of disk drives and optical storage devices, yesterday said it acquired Storage Dimensions Inc. of Los Gatos for an undisclosed amount of cash. Storage Dimensions incorporates Maxtor products into subsystems that it sells through dealers and other resellers. Storage Dimensions will be combined in a group with U.S. Design Corp., another maker of storage systems acquired by Maxtor in May.}}</ref> In June 1987, Maxtor purchased [[Storage Dimensions]], a maker of high-performance, high-capacity HDD subsystems for the [[IBM Personal Computer|IBM PC]] (which chiefly made use of Maxtor's own drives), for an undisclosed sum.<ref name=buys /> The acquisition was a success story for Maxtor, and the subsidiary had grown to generate $80&nbsp;million in sales by 1992.<ref name=upi>{{cite web | last=Staff writer | date=December 29, 1992 | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/12/29/Maxtor-completes-Storage-Dimensions-sale/2352725605200/ | title=Maxtor completes Storage Dimensions sale | work=UPI.com | publisher=United Press International | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20241119030125/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/12/29/Maxtor-completes-Storage-Dimensions-sale/2352725605200/ | archivedate=November 19, 2024}}</ref> That year, Maxtor sold off Storage Dimensions to private investors.<ref name=upi>{{cite web | last=Staff writer | date=December 29, 1992 | url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/12/29/Maxtor-completes-Storage-Dimensions-sale/2352725605200/ | title=Maxtor completes Storage Dimensions sale | work=UPI.com | publisher=United Press International | archiveurl=https://archive.today/20241119030125/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1992/12/29/Maxtor-completes-Storage-Dimensions-sale/2352725605200/ | archivedate=November 19, 2024}}</ref>

In 1990, Maxtor entered the mass market with its purchase of the assets (but not the liabilities) of bankrupt [[MiniScribe]] in [[Longmont, Colorado]].<ref>{{cite web |date=July 3, 1990 |title=Company News;   Maxtor Acquires Miniscribe Assets |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D7163EF930A35754C0A966958260 |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=[[New York Times]]}}</ref> The transition was a tough one as the early products of this union (notably the 7120AT 3.5-inch 120&nbsp;MB drive) had many quality and design problems. Later products managed to sell well despite the initial problems. In 1996, the company completely redesigned its hard drive product line by introducing its DiamondMax series with a [[Texas Instruments]] [[digital signal processor]].

=== Financial troubles ===
After nine years of development, the original XT-series of drives had achieved a capacity of 1&nbsp;GB. Maxtor sold the rights to the series to Sequel of [[Santa Clara, California]] in the mid-1990s, and the company exited the server drive market. Sequel, a spin-off of [[Unisys]], was not a disk drive manufacturer; rather, they specialized in refurbishing drives for the existing customer base. Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in 1992, Maxtor's exit from the high-capacity 5.25-inch SCSI market temporarily left a product void in the industry. Around this time, [[SCSI]] versions of the 7000 series drives were also discontinued, and all engineering operations in San Jose were shut down in late 1993, leaving only the former MiniScribe design engineering staff. After turnover in the executive staff, Maxtor decided it had made a mistake, and when Maxtor moved its headquarters to [[Milpitas, California]], it gradually began to rebuild its engineering staff.

=== Acquisition of the Quantum hard drive division ===
In late 2000, Maxtor acquired the hard drive business of [[Quantum Corp.|Quantum]].<ref>[http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18811626 Article from CRN] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930181748/http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18811626 |date=2007-09-30 }}</ref><ref name="techtarget.com">{{cite web|url=https://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/hard-disk|title=What is hard disk? - Definition from WhatIs.com}}</ref> The merger, which was completed on April 1, 2001, made Maxtor larger than its rivals, notably Seagate, and returned it to the server hard drive market and also implemented the ATA/133 interface into its hard drives.

[[File:Maxtor onetouch.JPG|thumb|upright|Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition]]

=== Focus on external drives ===
Like many other hard drive manufacturers, Maxtor had been expanding in recent years into the external hard drive market. Its ''Maxtor One-Touch II'' external hard drive was marketed as convenient storage for the home user. Maxtor entered and became dominant in consumer business as result of a marketing strategy for the OneTouch line.{{fact|date=January 2016}} The OneTouch is a high-capacity (500 GB to 1 TB) USB drive with a single-press button to back up and mirror the computer's hard drive. The line became the best-selling consumer device in the computer segment with several million devices distributed globally.

Maxtor had initially made efforts to get into the 2.5-inch hard drive market, but in the beginning of 2005, new management made the surprising decision to discontinue development in this field. This was considered by many industry watchers to be a particularly peculiar move, since the market for such hard drives (mainly [[laptop|notebook computer]]s and [[MP3 player]]s) was already experiencing rapid growth, with no signs of slowing down in the foreseeable future.

=== Acquisition by Seagate ===
In a deal worth nearly US$2 billion,<ref name=":0" /> Maxtor was acquired by its rival Seagate in 2006.<ref name="factory-shutdown">{{cite web|url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/11037/seagate-to-shut-down-one-of-its-largest-hdd-assembly-plants|title=Seagate to Shut Down One of Its Largest HDD Assembly Plants|first=Anton|last=Shilov|publisher=AnandTech|date=13 January 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Yang |first=Felisa |date=26 January 2006 |title=Seagate buys Maxtor |url=https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/seagate-buys-maxtor/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=CNET |language=en}}</ref> The Maxtor brand was revived by Seagate in later 2016.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.anandtech.com/show/10869/seagate-revives-maxtor-brand-for-external-storage|title=Seagate Revives Maxtor Brand for External Storage|first=Anton|last=Shilov|publisher=AnandTech|date=1 December 2016}}</ref> 

== Competitors ==
{{Portal|Companies|San Francisco Bay Area}}
* [[Adaptec]]
* [[Fabrik Inc.]]
* [[Hitachi Global Storage Technologies]]
* [[Iomega]]
* [[Samsung Group|Samsung]]
* [[Western Digital]]

==References==
{{Commons category|Maxtor}}
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==

* [https://www.seagate.com/support/by-product/maxtor/ Official website]
{{Hard disk drive manufacturers}}
{{Seagate Technology}}

[[Category:Seagate Technology]]
[[Category:1982 establishments in California]]
[[Category:2006 disestablishments in California]]
[[Category:2006 mergers and acquisitions]]
[[Category:Companies based in Milpitas, California]]
[[Category:Computer companies established in 1982]]
[[Category:Computer companies disestablished in 2006]]
[[Category:Computer storage companies]]
[[Category:Defunct companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies based in California]]
[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies established in 1982]]
[[Category:Manufacturing companies disestablished in 2006]]
[[Category:Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:Technology companies established in 1982]]
[[Category:Technology companies disestablished in 2006]]