Seagate $2.3B Charge Erases Entire Value of Maxtor Buy

Hard-disk drive vendor Seagate ( STX ) this evening announced it will write-off $2.3 billion of goodwill and intangibles from its acquisition of drive maker Maxtor back in December of 2005 . The announcement, made in an 8-K after market close this evening, means Seagate is wiping out the entire value of the Maxtor buy, and then some: the all-stock transaction was valued at $1.9 billion when it was announced in ’05.  Seagate will record the amount as a non-cash charge to its Q2 results, originally reported on Jan. 21 . At the time, Seagate had said that it estimated $2.3 billion to $2.6 billion worth of assets was subject to impairment charges. Seagate has yet to file its 10Q for Q2, which ended Jan. 2. Seagate shares today rose 18 cents, or 4.75%, to $3.97.  (link)