Komag and UltraCard Announce Supply Agreement
SAN JOSE, Calif. and LOS GATOS, Calif., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Komag, Incorporated (Nasdaq: KMAG), a technical leader in the disk drive component industry and UltraCard, Inc., developers of high capacity, high security portable data storage technology, announced today they have signed a Supply Agreement for Komag to supply five million magnetic card substrates to UltraCard. During this initial supply period, both Komag and UltraCard will develop and prove a high volume, low cost manufacturing process for magnetic card storage strips.
(Photo: newscom.com )
Komag's recent merger with HMT Technology Corporation combined two of the strongest technology teams in the magnetic data storage industry. Komag has the technological depth to complement UltraCard's proprietary memory card and magnetic reader-writer technologies and its broad affiliation with customers in the memory card market. The relationship will position the two companies to enable significant new applications.
T.H. Tan, Komag's president and chief executive officer, stated, "This agreement with UltraCard is the first of several opportunities that we are actively pursuing in potentially new and lucrative markets for us outside the traditional disk drive industry. We recognize that UltraCard's innovative approach combined with our experience in magnetic data storage will provide data storage capabilities heretofore unobtainable on existing magnetic stripe cards that consumers can carry in their wallets. We are pleased to be a pioneer in this emerging market."
"The alliance with Komag is one of the most important links in the development of the unique UltraCard technology," said Dan Kehoe, CEO of UltraCard. "We now have a path to provide 5 Megabytes (MB) of data on a memory card. This capability will open up entire new markets for the financial transaction, medical, secure identification and government card markets. This would be the greatest advance in card market applications in 40 years."
It is intended that the initial supply agreement will evolve into a volume manufacturing agreement between the parties. Based on current manufacturing process expectations, the companies forecast that Komag's plants could have the capacity to manufacture approximately one million magnetic substrates per day.
Forward-Looking Statements
The above information contains forward-looking statements about Komag, Incorporated and UltraCard, Inc. While these statements represent the companies' current judgment, there can be no assurance that the market for magnetic cards will develop as expected, that the production of magnetic card substrates will meet manufacturing, cost and quality targets, or that the new business will meet financial targets, including profitability and return on investment. These and other risk factors are described in the most recent Form 10-K, most recent Form 10-Q and other periodic reports filed by Komag and UltraCard with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
About Komag:
Founded in 1983, Komag recently completed a merger with HMT Technology Corporation. The combined company is the world's largest independent supplier of disks and is well positioned as the broad-based strategic supplier of choice for leading disk drive manufacturers. The pre-merger company has produced over 480 million thin-film disks, the primary high-capacity storage medium for digital data in computers and consumer appliances. Komag's advanced development capability and high-volume, low-cost manufacturing expertise provide high quality, leading-edge disk products at a low overall cost to its customers. These attributes enable Komag to partner with customers in the execution of their time-to-market design and time-to-volume manufacturing strategies.
About UltraCard
UltraCard Inc. is the developer of UltraCard technology for high capacity, portable data storage for existing and future market sectors. UltraCard technology combines credit card and hard disk drive technology to achieve a new platform in data storage which allows the sharing, exchange, archiving and transport of information. One of the UltraCard card's proprietary features is that of interoperability. This interoperability feature makes the card adaptable to any number of applications since the technology incorporates the programs required to achieve total compatibility with all cards and readers.
For more information about Komag, visit Komag's Internet home page at komag.com or call Komag's Investor Relations 24-hour Hot Line at 888-66-KOMAG or 408-576-2901.
For more information about UltraCard, visit the UltraCard web site at www.ultracard.com or call UltraCard's Investor Relations department at 408-354-6230.
SOURCE Komag, Incorporated
CO: Komag, Incorporated; UltraCard, Inc.
ST: California
IN: CPR
SU: CON
10/23/2000 16:15 EDT prnewswire.com |
