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To: Mark Madden who wrote (4823)	11/19/1999 10:01:00 AM
From: FJB	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5058

November 19, 1999 Dow Jones Newswires Yamaha Corp To Pull Out Of Magnetic Head Ops - - 19/11/06-25G Yamaha Corp. (J.YAH or 7951) - Hamamatsu, Japan Half-Year Ended Sept. 30: PARENT 1999 1998 Sales Y199.67 bln Y205.46 bln Operating Profit (157 mln) 2.62 bln Pretax Profit (637 mln) 2.15 bln Net Profit (15.95 bln) 748 mln Per share Earnings (77.22) 3.62 Dividend omitted 5.00 Figures in parentheses are losses. Figures may differ from headline due to rounding. Yamaha Corp. also released the following forecasts: PARENT For Full Year Ending March 2000 Sales Y370.0 bln Pretax Profit (10.0 bln) Net Profit (26.0 bln) Per share Earnings (125.89) Dividend 3.00 Figures in parentheses are losses. TOKYO -- Yamaha Corp. (J.YAH or 7951), a Japanese musical instrument maker, said Friday that it swung into a pretax loss of Y637 million for the first half ended Sept. 30, down from a year-earlier profit of Y2.15 billion, citing weakness in domestic demand and the negative effect of the yen's strength. Yamaha said its sales during the first half dropped 2.8% to Y199.67 billion. Of the total, domestic sales fell 1.8% to Y96.24 billion. Meanwhile exports amounted to Y103.43 billion, down 3.7% on year, due to the yen's rapid advance. Yamaha posted a huge net loss of Y15.95 billion for the first half, sharply down from a profit of Y748 million a year ago, due to special losses worth Y16.32 billion from payment related to its early retirement program. It has decided to omit an interim dividend payment, compared with a Y5.00 payout per share a year ago. Meanwhile, Yamaha reported that it will pull out of business operations related to thin-film magnetic heads for use in hard disk drives. The company diversified into the field in 1991, but hard disk drive markets have been intensely competitive, resulting in steep price drops. The falling number of hard disks employed per unit in hard disk drives, due to rapid advances in technology for memory capacity, exacerbated the situation. The business division registered sales of Y72.0 billion at its peak in the fiscal year ended March 1998. But the strength tapered off in the following fiscal year with sales of Y36.9 billion. The operation had 795 workers as of Sept. 30. Yamaha said the magnetic disk division plans to suspend production effective March 31, 2000. Removal of the production facilities and inventories will lead to a special loss of about Y23 billion in the second half. For the current fiscal year ending March 2000, Yamaha is predicting an unconsolidated pretax loss of Y10.0 billion net loss of Y26.0 billion with sales of Y370 billion. It plans to distribute a full-year dividend of Y3.00 per share, down from Y6.00 a year ago.