I think you are right, Buck. But two things to note:
First, it is only rumour at present. It's just wacky enough to be true, but it's still only rumour at this stage.
Second, it will inded change the industry - but not, perhaps in the way that you expect. (Making an unwarranted assumption here about your expectations.) The primary effect will be to change the competitive landscape.
Currently on the desktop we have:
Maxtor
Seagate
Western Digital
Samsung
IBM are off the radar. Sure, they have OEM business (or I assume they do) but they are bleeding big time.
In SCSI we have:
Seagate
Maxtor
IBM (Perhaps ailing a little but stiull in there and punching.)
Fujitsu
Plus bit-players like Hitachi.
And in notebook drives we have:
IBM
Toshiba
Hitachi
Plus bit players.
I suspect that even IBM's notebook business, their stronghold for so long, might be less than 100% roses at present.
Now consider the new, post Hitachi landscape.
The notebook field is probably the most significant sector of all. IBM plus Hitachi equals a market share dominance in the IT hardware industry second only to Intel's. Big dollars to be made there, with only Toshiba to challenge them. Who knows, we might even see Seagate make their long-ago promised return to the 2.5 inch market, if there are only two major players left to compete against. Doubt it though. They would have one hell of a task in front of them. Four years is a long, long time in this industry.
In SCSI, I see little change. The dissapearance of Hitachi as a seperate entity will make few waves, outside of Japan, perhaps, where Hitachi are huge, I believe. Maybe they will have the sense to retain the Hitachi name for the domestic market. Actually, come to think of it, they will probably have to market all their drive products under the Hitachi name worldwide - they could hardly sell them under the name "IBM", could they!
And on the desktop. Seagate and Maxtor et al do not stand to loose a competitor given a Hitachi takeover, they stand to gain one. Hell, with Hitachi at the helm I'd consider buying IBM drives again myself, and I bet I'm not the only one.
But riddle me this one, if you can. How did IBM manage to loose the plot so badly anyway? What went wrong? It's obvious that the company had some hind of internal upheaval - how else do you explain their sudden fall from their former grace? But what?