To cut costs, companies buy directly from Seagate

As companies with large data centers step up their efforts to cut costs, hard disk maker Seagate is finding itself in the position of selling its products directly to these companies. In fact, chief executive Stephen Luczo admitted in a recent interview that companies such as "Amazon, eBay and Yahoo" have bought directly from the company. The situation shows no sign of abating though, and is "bleeding now into investment banks and other verticals." This shift in the hardware industry is seeing traditional hardware suppliers such as HP and Dell pitting themselves with their suppliers for big volume businesses, noted the New York Times. Article