In some alternate universe, perhaps Western Digital is able to acquire Seagate and instantly more than double its hard drive sales. But in this one, Seagate ultimately scoffed at WD's takeover proposal, or so that's the story "two people with knowledge of the matter" say, according to a Bloomberg report.

The sources say WD was willing to fork over anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent mor than TPG Capital, another firm that unsuccessfully tried to acquire Seagate. When news of WD's proposal hit the news wire, Seagate's stock surged 7.2 percent. So why didn't Seagate bite?

Both companies declined to comment, but the general consensus is that such a mega-deal would have sparked an antitrust investigation. On top of that, some management personnel would likely have lost their jobs.

Seagate's market value currently sits at about $6.9 billion. Western Digital, despite reporting lower sales than Seagate, is worth about $8 billion.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a federal agency tasked with establishing standards for government and business, did something it's never done before -- it certified a line of enterprise-class hard drives for use within government systems. Specifically, the agency gave Seagate's Cheetah Constellation and Savvio drives its stamp of approval by certifying them to the FIPS 140-2 standard.

"As information storage consumption in the enterprise continues to grow, the ability to secure that data during all stages of a storage system's lifecycle becomes increasingly critical," said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president of Sales, Marketing, and Product Line Management. "The FIPS 140-2 certification of Seagate's enterprise products further validates Seagate's commitment to enabling the widespread adoption of truly government-grade secure storage and hellp customers protect their sensitive personal and business information."

Seagate's enterprise Self-Encrypting Drives (SEDs) boast 128-bit AES encryption and automated hardware-based security.

FIPS 140-2 Overview

It's getting easier to carry your digital luggage from point A to point B thanks to ever increasing capacities in portable storage. Take for example Seagate's new 1.5TB FreeAgent GoFlex ultra-portable drive. According to Seagage, this ranks as the planet's first 1.5TB portable external drive.

"Today’s announcement is a 'triple-crown' of consumer technology—packaging record breaking capacity, blazingly fast USB 3.0 connectivity and the bonus of movie entertainment—making the 1.5TB GoFlex ultra-portable drive an unprecedented and innovative solution," said Darcy Clarkson, vice president of Global Retail Sales and Marketing for Seagate. "Bringing this solution to market on the heels of our 3TB GoFlex Desk drive and the Momentus XT solid state hybrid drive is proof of Seagate’s continuing technology leadership and tradition of setting storage industry milestones."

In addition to USB 3.0 connectivity, the FreeAgent GoFlex also features 192-bit triple DES encryption, automatic continuous backup, and Seagate's Dashboard management tool for managing backup schedules, viewing drive stats, and more.

The new drive is available now for $250.