$175M Seagate Securities Class Action Settlement (STX)

Current Status

Claims are open. The claim form must be postmarked, or submitted online, no later than 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on October 19, 2026. The deadline to exclude yourself or to object is October 27, 2026. The court has not yet approved the settlement: the Settlement Fairness Hearing is scheduled for November 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time before Judge Rita F. Lin in the Northern District of California. No payment date has been announced, and none can be, because money is distributed only after the court approves the settlement, any appeals are resolved, and claims processing finishes. If you traded Seagate common stock during the class period, the step to take now is to pull your brokerage records and file.

What Changed Recently?

The parties reached this settlement in the middle of a contested case, not at the end of one. Seagate's motion to dismiss the operative complaint was granted in part and denied in part on May 12, 2025, the company answered in June 2025, and discovery followed. Plaintiffs moved for class certification on December 16, 2025; that motion was still pending when the deal came together.

A first mediation with David M. Murphy of Phillips ADR Enterprises on November 5, 2025 produced nothing. The parties met with the same mediator again on March 21, 2026, again without agreement, but talks continued and led to a $175 million cash deal memorialized in a term sheet executed as of April 20, 2026. The Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement is dated May 29, 2026 and was amended June 29, 2026. A federal court has since authorized notice to the class, which is why the claim window is open now.

The court has not decided the case in favor of either side. Defendants deny the claims, deny any wrongdoing or violation of law, and deny that their alleged conduct caused the class any harm or damages. The settlement is not an admission of guilt or wrongdoing.

What the Case Alleged

Seagate is one of the world's two largest makers of hard disk drives. The complaint alleged that Seagate, its chief executive Dr. William Mosley and its chief financial officer Gianluca Romano misled investors by concealing the magnitude of the company's sales to Huawei — a company on the U.S. government's restricted-entity list — in alleged violation of U.S. export laws, and that Seagate's profitability during the class period rested largely on those sales.

The backdrop is a matter of public record. In April 2023 the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security announced a $300 million civil penalty against Seagate Technology LLC and a Singapore affiliate under a settlement agreement resolving allegations that they shipped more than 7.4 million foreign-produced hard drives, worth roughly $1.1 billion, to Huawei entities across 429 transactions between August 2020 and September 2021 without a license, after the Foreign Direct Product Rule had been extended to cover Huawei. It was the largest stand-alone administrative penalty in the agency's history, payable in quarterly installments of $15 million over five years, and it came with audit obligations and a suspended denial order. The securities case that produced this settlement is a separate, private lawsuit about what investors were told, not a government enforcement action.

None of the securities allegations was tested at trial. All defendants deny them, and no court has found any defendant liable.

Who Qualifies?

The Settlement Class covers all persons and entities who purchased or otherwise acquired common stock of Seagate Technology Holdings plc from September 14, 2020 through April 19, 2023, inclusive, and were allegedly damaged as a result. Seagate common stock trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker STX, with CUSIP G7997R103 (previously G7945M107).

You are not a Settlement Class Member if:

• you are, or were, an officer or director of Seagate, or an immediate family member of one;
• you are the legal representative, heir or assign of an excluded person;