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Last Minute Shopping for Seagate: Page 2 of 3

Seagate plans to swallow EVault whole, retaining all 250 employees and all of its proudcts and services. EVault CEO Phil Gilmour will be offered a senior management position. EVault claims more than 8,500 customers, and Seagate says the startup has been profitable. EVault raised $24 million in VC funding since it was founded in 1997.

At least one Wall Street analyst expects Seagate to keep the EVault management team intact as it tries to expand beyond its hard drive business with this latest deal -- exactly one year after it spent $1.9 billion on rival Maxtor. (See Seagate Munches Maxtor.)

"The [EVault] acquisition highlights Seagate's willingness to invest in higher growth, more profitable opportunities outside its core hard disk drive business," analyst Dan Renouard of R.W. Baird wrote in a note today. "We expect Seagate will continue to have EVault's current management team run this online business."

Seagate isn't the only vendor moving deeper into managed storage services. AT&T, Savvis, and Verizon are expanding their storage services. (See Managed Storage Moves On.)

Also, traditional storage services firms also appear to be on the upswing. Incentra Solutions claimed a 56 percent year over year increase in revenues last quarter, and industry sources say Arsenal Digital is profitable or close to it. (See Incentra Reports Earnings.)