Seagate to go public again

Seagate Technology, which makes hard disk drives for computers, is to go public again, having been taken private in August, 2000 by a group of private equity firms led by buyout firm Silver Lake.

The public offering will be the largest technology IPO on the New York markets this year and is expected to raise just over $1bn (€990m).

Since January only 59 companies have had IPOs in these markets, compared to 526 in 1999.

In the past three years the company has been undergoing major re-structuring and has cut 40,000 jobs.

However, it has in the past two years been increasing its market share and now has around 60% of the high-end server market.

Its earnings have improved significantly this year, and for the quarter ended 27 September, it rose to $110m (€108m) from $34m (€33m) a year earlier.

Revenue was also up significantly.