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( BW)(CA-HMT-TECHNOLOGY)(HMTT) HMT Announces Strategic Alliance and Customer Qualification with Conner Technology
Business Editors & High Tech Writers
FREMONT, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 22, 1999--HMT Technology Corp. (Nasdaq:HMTT) today announced that it has reached a strategic partnership agreement with Conner Technology to be the single-sourced media supplier on their initial Hard Disk Drive Program.
Under this long-term agreement, HMT will supply its advanced 4.3 GB per platter magnetoresistive media to this program. Conner Technology's product has areal densities exceeding 3.1 GB per square inch at 5400 RPM.
Conner Technology has a market strategy to manufacture low-cost hard disk drives for the PC and other markets. The sub $1,000 PC and low cost market segments that Conner is targeting have great potential for rapid growth. This will enable HMT to expand its market penetration to all market segments, including Desktop, Enterprise, Removable and the sub $1,000 PC markets being targeted by Conner Technology.
"We are very excited about the opportunity to align our corporation with a hard disk drive pioneer and established market visionary like Finis Conner," said Ron Schauer, chairman, president and CEO of HMT Technology.
"Conner Technology is truly designing for costs," continued Schauer. "They worked with us to enlist ideas on specifications and ease of manufacturability of the media that we produce for their drive, which in return helps us to reduce cost and deliver a very reliable and high quality standard product. This demonstrates a true partnership which will allow both companies to benefit from each other's competencies."
"HMT is well positioned to support the expected growth of Conner Technology in many areas," says Schauer, "with quality and reliability being paramount for example and our ability to ramp our production in accordance with Conner Technology's business requirements."
"We are excited about the market potential that lays in front of us, and we are very pleased to have support from suppliers as successful as HMT," said Peter Knight, President and C.O.O. of Conner Technology. "HMT has been very effective in maintaining a leadership position in the thin film media manufacturing market. HMT's world class manufacturing facility (located in Fremont, CA) has really been a key factor in their success. HMT meets time to market requirements with the highest quality standards possible on new products and in today's market this is a real necessity".
The statements in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from predicted results. Further information on factors that could affect the company's results is detailed in the company's reports on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 1998 and Form 10-Q for the period ended December 31, 1998, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements.
HMT Technology Corporation independently designs, develops, manufactures and markets high-performance thin-film disks. The company's products are used in high-capacity hard disk drives for a variety of high-end applications, including personal computers, network servers and workstations, and certain removable hard disk drive applications. The disks currently being shipped by HMT primarily have coercivity levels of 2000 to 3000 Oersted, a measure of storage capacity, and glide heights of 1.2 to 0.8 microinches. The company's shares are traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol HMTT. Additional information may be obtained by visiting HMT's website at hmtt.com, or by contacting the company directly. |
