>> The hires on 4/15 of Dr. Mark Re, IBM's former director of recording head development engineering, and Dr. Aric Menon, Seagate Recording Head Group's former chief technology officer. <<
Base on what I gathered, Dr. Mark Re was only made director at the end of 1997 when the previous director left for WD. So, I don't believe IBM's head technology was based on Dr. Re's direction. Dr. Re was manager of wafer development.
>> Finally, I think IBM's WDC deal is being over blown currently. It is a letter of intent. <<
This is a good point. There are many points that needs to be iron out. I think they rush the announcement and have not dotted the i's and crossed the t's yet. But I do believe if this deal goes through, IBM will be the primary head supplier for WD and not much left for RDRT.
>> But more importantly it seems acknowledged here that Seagate is going to be a bigger customer of RDRT in the future <<
This could be true as Seagate is having problems with its own head development. But I have heard that the previous head development director from IBM (before Dr. Re) may be leaving WD and looking to go to Seagate (?). Seagate may get its act together. But also, while Seagate is looking at RDRT for heads, it has started sampling of IBM heads. I wonder if IBM will get some Seagate business? Sampling doesn't mean that they will actually buy.
One other thought, I was surprise that the agreement did not include disks. Who in the industry can make the disk for IBM's advanced heads. The two go hand in hand. IBM is putting in that mega disk factory in Ireland.
Happy Investing |
