Verbatim is one of the biggest producers of media (cd's, dvd's and such) worldwide, providing solid quality at an ever-growing demand. Verbatim has just aquired SmartDisk, a vendor of portable and external disk drives and flash readers.

"Today's consumers and business professionals need the full range of portable storage options - hard disk, optical and flash. Now, we can meet all of their storage requirements." (TheRegister)

This is an obvious move. Traditional media like cd's and dvd's are probably not here to last, as cheap memory and (ultra)portable harddisks are now available at very good prices. I think the way storage is now seen will move away from cd's and dvd's and go towards harddisks more and more.