.....By the way, I'm told TDK is using the old R&D 3" wafer fab facility in Northern Japan to get wafers out. Also, I'm told no one is getting TDK/SAE heads in anywhere near the quantities need for the December quarter drive shipments. Wafers are coming out of Nagoyo but a reduced cycle qual will be required at the head level to be certain they're back to the point where they prior to the flood. But, at that point they were having serious problems with sulfur contamination in the wafers causing real problems with the 20 GB/platter heads....
RS take on RDRT:
Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT chart, msgs) ($10.81)
Long-Term Attractive
Dane Lewis, Network Systems Storage and Software
"Read-Rite announced that it plans to reduce its debt position by approximately $200 million by exercising its automatic conversion right for its 10 percent convertible subordinated notes due September, 2004," said Lewis. "We believe this move is a significant positive for RDRT, giving the company a healthier balance sheet by reducing debt. At a strike price of $4.51, the notes convert to approximately 43 million shares of common stock, which will be added to RDRT's current 57 million shares outstanding. This should have a dilutive effect on earnings-per-share for profitable quarters. Based on the company's recent success with the 20GB product iteration, we believe RDRT may be profitable in the December 2000 quarter. However, based on the large short position, which we expect to increase as the conversion date nears, we believe the dilution will be largely priced into the stock. RDRT's entrance into the Optical Filter business looks promising. RDRT has a dedicated team of people looking into the possibility of working on dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) for the fiber optic component market. We believe RDRT will outline its business strategy for this market in the next few months and we foresee product prototypes being available in the first half of calendar 2001."
siliconinvestor.com
Without getting ghoulish or anything like that, do you have any updates from the recent earthquakes in Japan? |
