Greg - you sez "APM now has a monopoly on the TFI-1.7g it might as well be a monopoly on 5 1/4 floppy drives."
yes, I agree. I think WDC biting the bullet may also be a serious blow to APM's delay. While APM made out nicely 2 Qs ago b/c of the TFI shortage might ve made Messr Crisman complacent last Q. Having said that, I m in the minority (of 1 <g>) position to think its last Q was quite respectible (60c fully diluted is impressive #.) Messr Crisman real sin was not able to provide guidance to correct irrational exuberance.
Having said all that, now we really ve to be dependent on Messr Crisman's hat trick, since WDC has resolutely decided to bail out of TFI. The rays of hope I see is somewhat buried in the last qtrly release, as follow:
Recently, the company announced the appointment of Dr. Virgil S. Speriosu to the newly created position of vice president, wafer development, where he will be concentrating on effecting the transition of the company's product technology from inductive thin film to MR during fiscal year 1998, as well as the development of future disk-head technologies and products.
Speriosu comes to Applied Magnetics with more than 13 years of experience in the development of magnetic recording devices and materials, most recently at IBM's Almaden Research Center. Speriosu will be reporting directly to Craig D. Crisman, chairman and chief executive officer.
The company also is now announcing the appointment, effective Oct. 29, 1997, of J. Kent Howard to the new position of director of materials science, reporting to Speriosu. Howard comes to Applied Magnetics with 37 years' industrial experience, most recently as a senior researcher at Komag Inc., a leading manufacturer of thin-film disks.
Prior to Komag, Howard was employed at IBM Corp. in various management and technology positions and, in 1990, was named an IBM Fellow. Prior to IBM, Howard was employed by Texas Instruments Inc. He has authored numerous publications and holds numerous patents and awards for his work in the field of magnetic recording materials.
rgds Bosco |
