OT >> May I respectfully ask, isn't it a bit premature to be so confident about the outcome of the acquisition? How can you be so sure that it will work out as planned, especially in light of the difficulties that IBM and SEG have faced?
Ask away, Sam. Let's take the questions one at a time.
>> premature ??
Not at all. Head production is continuing like there was no interruption. Didn't you listen to Arif say so ? They've produced 2.5 m heads (in less than one month), and have already shipped over a million drives with WD heads in them. Where does prematurity enter the picture ?
>> in light of the difficulties that IBM and SEG have faced?
Well, lets examine those difficulties.
1- IBM stayed with the routine of producing a million drives first - to install into its captive PC division. Then dump the leftover drives into the distribution channel in order to bankrupt the merchant drive makers. IBM's President of storage division, publicly, boldly and brashly predicted that WDC would be bankrupt and out of the business. That was two years ago. As now the world knows, IBM is out of that business, and that man is out of that job.
2- Seagate. At the time of Seagate's technology misses, there were dozens of drive and component startups that were suicidally competing for market share. Within a few months Fugitsu, Maxtor and Quantum entered the drive business, and started to grab for market share. What do you expect in a melee like that ? Everyone missed a transition or two. It is not at all fair to talk about Seagate's misses, when effectively they managed to wipe out their competition. Even Mohammed Ali had to take a punch or two in the process of putting his opponent away.
By the way, did you notice that today the Dow was down 80 pts. NAS down 15. MXO and STX down. The ddx was down a couple points. But our little WDC sailed through with flying colors.
Sarmad |
