Seagate Technology, the giant digital storage company, has reached a deal to acquire a rival, the Maxtor Corporation, for $1.9 billion in stock, the companies announced today.

Whoa! The consolidation continues. Now we're down to:

Seagate/Maxtor/Quantum/Conner/DEC
Hitachi/IBM
Western Digital
Fujitsu
Toshiba (laptops only, IIRC)
Samsung (a newcomer, I think -- I wonder if their disk business came from an acquisition. All of theirs looks low-end in any event).

Seagate Agrees to Buy Maxtor for $1.9 Billion