Wasabi buys Seagate's Lyve Cloud business in storage push

Wasabi has agreed to acquire Seagate's Lyve Cloud business, with Seagate receiving equity in Wasabi as part of the deal.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction will make Seagate a shareholder in the cloud storage company and bring Lyve Cloud's enterprise customer base into Wasabi as competition intensifies in cloud storage and backup services.

Wasabi plans to migrate Lyve Cloud customers onto its platform and support them through its existing data centre footprint, partner relationships and support teams. It also highlighted security features, including Covert Copy, as part of its offering.

The acquisition marks a portfolio shift for Seagate, best known for mass-capacity data storage hardware. By exiting the Lyve Cloud business, Seagate is narrowing its focus to core storage operations while retaining exposure to Wasabi through an equity stake.

Demand for enterprise storage has been rising as companies keep larger volumes of data from analytics, video and artificial intelligence workloads. Those trends are increasing pressure on businesses to control storage costs, simplify supplier relationships and meet compliance requirements as data sets expand to petabyte scale.

Customer base

Lyve Cloud has built its position among enterprise storage customers that need security and compliance features. Wasabi, which has focused on cloud object storage, is using the acquisition to deepen its reach in that market and broaden its appeal to companies seeking alternatives to the largest cloud providers.

The two businesses also overlap in data protection and backup partnerships. Both integrate with software providers including Veeam, Rubrik and Commvault, giving Wasabi a stronger position in backup and recovery workloads, where customers often want storage products that fit into existing systems without adding another supplier.

For channel partners, the combination may reduce the need to support multiple S3-compatible storage vendors for similar customer requirements. That could simplify procurement and deployment for businesses that use cloud object storage as part of broader backup, archival or disaster recovery strategies.

Wasabi has built its market presence around predictable pricing in a sector where customers often complain about variable charges and complexity. Adding Lyve Cloud's customer relationships could help it expand further among larger organisations that want simpler storage economics without moving entirely to a hyperscale cloud provider.

David Friend, co-founder and chief executive officer of Wasabi Technologies, said the acquisition would strengthen the company's position in the sector and extend its reach among enterprise users.

"This acquisition strengthens our position as the world's leading pure-play cloud storage vendor," Friend said. "Seagate has built a loyal enterprise customer base for Lyve Cloud storage, and we welcome those customers to Wasabi. We are focused on supporting their growth with our global network of data centres, innovative security features such as Covert Copy, AI-ready capabilities, partner integration tools, and technical support."

Seagate described the transaction as part of its focus on storage hardware and related core products, and said Wasabi would provide continuity for Lyve Cloud customers after the business changes hands.

"This transaction is aligned with Seagate's strategic focus on its core mass-capacity storage business to meet the surging demand for data storage, while ensuring Lyve Cloud customers continue receiving exceptional support through Wasabi, a dedicated, independent cloud storage provider," Romano said.