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by Stephanie Neil, MA Editorial Staff   | Abstract: | Disk drive manufacturer acquires IBM business unit and quickly relaunches new technology platforms. |
Acquiring a business unit of IBM is a lot like trying to rip an oak tree out of the earth. Its roots are deeply embedded within the resource that has nourished it for decades, making it difficult to break away. That's the experience that Hitachi Ltd. had when it purchased IBM's hard disk drive business in January of 2003. To ease the transition the newly formed entity, called Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (San Jose, CA), was given the option to license code from IBM and continue using its homegrown production procurement system. But it would be an expensive approach that could cost the company its autonomy. After a careful assessment, Hitachi executives decided to sever the IBM tie and buy a procurement application from vendor E2open Inc. (Redwood City, CA). It was then that the separation of all IT systems in the IBM disk drive operation -- a 40 year old business, with engineering and manufacturing spread throughout the world -- became inevitable. [Click to continue] |