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  • johan851 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    So did the employee actually 'defect' like the captain of a Soviet nuclear submarine? Or did he simply quit his job at Seagate to go work for Western Digital?
  • name99 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    If he left Seagate carrying a briefcase full of notes and a laptop full of specs (which I'm guessing was the case) then this was rather more than "simply quit his job at Seagate to go work for Western Digital".

    If we add in (and again this is probably the case) negotiations before he quit his job along the lines of "suppose I left Seagate and brought the following info with me --- how good a salary do you think that would get me" now it's even less about "quit his job" and rather more about "actively spied for WD".

    Given how much money is being handed over, I suspect that indeed the worst case is exactly what happened, and why WD are being punished.
  • george1976 - Saturday, November 26, 2011 - link

    Damn you know too much. Are you sure you dont work for Seagate?:)
  • sleepeeg3 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    Even at the lowest echelons of a corporation, many companies prevent their employees from working at a similar corporation for at least 6 months. Most companies have strict policies against hiring you as well, for this very reason.
  • mino - Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - link

    Stop the bull****.

    These policies have a single main cause - to prevent competition between companies on the Labor market thus making workforce cheaper on average.

    IF you really want confidentiality preserved, NO CONTRACT CLAUSE CAN GUARANTEE THAT FOR YOU.
    Certainly the ones of the type you-are-ours-for-the-next-year-even-if-we-wont-pay-you.

    Pissed people reveal secrets. Paid moles do NOT leave home company, would be stupid to do so ...
  • Beenthere - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    Even if the employee left without anything but notes in his head, if he signed a non-disclosure agreement, which is standard fare these days, he can't tell his new employer what he knows.
  • bigboxes - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    This won't effect the hard drive makers in the least. People got to have room for their file sharing habit!
  • ATC9001 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    Exactly, trade secrets are trade secrets regardless of written or memorized.

    And like the comment below, production is down 20-25% but vendors are making windfall gains. (prices are almost 300% higher...so margins are probably 1000% higher per HDD)
  • ATC9001 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    *EDIT*
    Question....Have the HDD manufactures raised their prices significantly or is this the middleman raising the prices? (probably both, but how much from each source?)
  • anactoraaron - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    HDD production is only down 20-25% and people purchasing HDD's are still being gouged. Got a 3TB WD external for 139 at bestbuy last week- promptly pulled the drive out of the case and put it in my server. Would have spent $250 on newegg for just the drive and tiger has the exact same external for $250. Somewhere out there I would bet an investigation is starting... consumers are being ripped off!!
  • C'DaleRider - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link

    No conspiracy, just simple economics. You want to decrease demand for an item in short supply, you raise the price. You have a glut of a product and want to move the built up inventory, you drop the price.

    In this case, the hike in prices are designed to curb sales, simple as that. The added profit is just a side benefit for the sellers.
  • ViRGE - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link

    Furthermore you have to contend with the fact that most HDDs are already claimed by OEMs in long term contracts. The only places the 20% could come out of are the spot market and the retail market (which in the case of OEM drives are one in the same). Hence OEMs are secure in the number of drives they need, but the number of drives that will be available for purchase for us has taken much more than a 20% hit.
  • anactoraaron - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link

    okay... then explain to me why seagate drives are as expensive as other drives. They weren't effected by the flooding. Sure they may have some problems with certain parts being in short supply but still.
  • ViRGE - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link

    Where do you think all of those WD customers went when spot market allocations were cut? Hard drives are a commodity, one drive is just as good a substitute for another.
  • Veroxious - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link

    Being in tech support for over a decade 80-90% of all failed drives have been WD, pre Seagate Maxtor and Hitachi drives with WD accounting for all the failed 3.5" drives. I would not touch the WD drives except for the Black series and the Raptors. Hitachi 2.5" drives really suck too.
  • ezorb - Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - link

    thats funny, cause I own about ~40 hard drives, about 50/50 WD/Seagate and I have had one WD external drive fail and about 4 segates fail in the last 5 years or so.
  • mino - Wednesday, November 23, 2011 - link

    I would not touch the WD drives except for the Black series and the Raptors.

    Then by your own account WD, as a company, is not the culprit.

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