US Gov. worried over Seagate sale to China

Next stop stealing information on the hush hush

27 August 2007 13:28 GMT / By Stuart Miles

A Chinese company's move to buy American hard drive maker Seagate has caused fear and concern amongst some American government officials.

According to a report in the New York Times, officials are worried that yet another American technology company will fall into Chinese hands and threaten national security.

Some commentators believe that if the Chinese were to buy the company, they could secretly tamper with hardware and software to make it possible to spy or steal computer information from the US government.

“The US government is freaking out”, Mr. Watkins chief executive of Seagate said during an interview on Thursday to the NY Times.

According to the paper, Mr. Watkins said that Seagate, which is the largest drive maker in the United States, was not for sale, however went on to say that if a high enough premium was offered to shareholders it would be difficult to stop.

Similar concerns were raised 3 years ago when Lenovo, a Chinese computer maker, bought IBM’s personal computer business.

We will keep you posted.