Verbatim acquires drive maker SmartDisk

Storage company Verbatim has agreed to purchase portable drive vendor SmartDisk. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

SmartDisk produces external storage drives, including portable Flash and hard disk-based drives.

An NPD report cited by SmartDisk claimed that the company had 16 percent of the US portable drive market last year. 

Verbatim is known mostly for writable CDs, DVDs and Flash memory cards. The company hopes that the SmartDisk acquisition will give it an immediate presence in the removable hard-disk market.

Shigenori Otsuka, president of Verbatim's parent company MKM, said that the company plans to incorporate SmartDisk's products and facilities.

Verbatim will also hire additional development and marketing employees to support the new offerings, he added.

Analyst firm IDC said recently that more than six million external hard drives will ship in 2008, a 58 percent increase from 3.8 million units last year. 

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