Seagate gets legal with Metalincs buy

HARD-DRIVE heavyweight, Seagate is buying again, this time picking up a small but interesting four-year-old firm called Metalincs.

San Jose-based Metalincs operates in the booming sector for so-called e-discovery software where files, emails and metadata can be inspected and presented in the event of a legal discovery process. Much of the time, it’s about looking for a “smoking gun” – clinching evidence that either condemns or clears the subject of the process.

Some folks call this the “keep the CEO out of jail” sales pitch and, in the post-Enron/Sarbanes-Oxley world, it’s a pitch that makes plenty of people stand up and salute.

Seagate clearly wants to diversify. Almost a year ago it announced an agreement to acquire online backup firm Evault. Like Evault, Metalincs will operate as part of Seagate’s services unit. With Flash drive notebooks emerging and server-based computing advancing, that looks like a smart plan. µ