Seagate Shares Jump as It Considers Going Private

Seagate Technology (STX) surged in premarket trading after saying that it received an indication of interest about going private.

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Seagate, which makes hard disk drives and storage products, gained 20.96% to $15.35 a share at 6:19 am, from Thursday's closing price of $12.69.

The company said Thursday that it is in discussions with the party that indicated interest. Seagate has retained Morgan Stanley (MS) and Perella Weinberg Partners for financial advice.

Seagate has gone private in before. In 2000, a group of investors including Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group bought Seagate for $1.7 billion and took it private. Seagate's current CEO, Steve Luczo, founded Silver Lake.

In 2002, Seagate went public again in an IPO worth $870 million.

Seagate is incorporated in Ireland and operates out of Scotts Valley, Ca.. It employed 52,600 people as of July, nearly 86% of whom work in Asia, The Associated Press said.