RDRT reports revenue drop greater than 50%. Also reports loss of $1.15 per share, versus First Call estimated loss of $1.19 a share.
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Read-Rite sales tumble
By Janet Haney, CBS MarketWatch
Last Update: 7:14 PM ET Jan 10, 2000
MILPITAS, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- Read-Rite reported Monday a
narrower-than-expected first-quarter loss, but that offset by news that the
maker of magnetic recording heads said its sales were less than half what
the company generated the same period a year ago.
The company (RDRT: news,
msgs) said it lost $57.5 million, or
$1.15 a share, compared with a
profit of $1.1 million, or 2 cents a
share, in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by First Call
expected Read-Rite, based in
Milpitas, Calif., to lose $1.19 a
share.
The company (RDRT: news, msgs) said it lost $57.5 million, or $1.15 a
share, compared with a profit of $1.1 million, or 2 cents a share, in the
year-ago quarter. Sales for the quarter slipped to $114.5 million, down
from the year-ago figure of $230.2 million, the company said in an
announcement after the markets closed.
Earlier, Read-Rite shares got slammed, dropping 45/64, or 11 percent, to
5 47/64.
The company said its transition to giant magnetoresistance technology
represented 74 percent of its revenue in the first quarter. The GMR
process involves changes in electrical resistance that occur in specific
materials located in thin layers of metals. Read-Rite said it shipped in
volume to its GMR customers, which include Seagate (SEG: news, msgs),
Maxtor (MXTR: news, msgs), Western Digital (WDC: news, msgs) and
Quantum (HDD: news, msgs) (DSS: news, msgs).
Additionally, Read-Rite said it sees strong demand for its products as it
heads into the March quarter and anticipates "strong sequential unit and
revenue growth."
Janet Haney is an online reporter for CBS MarketWatch.
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