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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Simpson who wrote (9121)	4/19/2002 3:15:39 PM
From: Sam	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

More Gus: You mean the combined enterprise drive business of Maxtor-Quantum right, Sam? My sense is that the integration issues created by combining the Quantum/MKE factories (rigid, Japanese-style automation) and the Maxtor factories (flexible, cell-based Korean-style automation) scared off many system vendors and forced them to play follow the leader in terms of disk drive supply. EMC, the high-end system leader, and Compaq, the mid-range system leader, both use Seagate as their primary supplier since Seagate continues to maintain its vast technical lead in speed and capacity. I also recall that Maxtor was in no rush to renew the contract manufacturing relationship with Matsushita Kotobuki that it inherited from Quantum. Did you know that, according to Goldman Sachs, IBM's disk drive division lost somewhere between $600M-$700M pre-tax last year and was on track to lose a similar amount this year? IBM can no longer hide the fact that the disk drive division was subsidizing its price war against EMC. I'm curious why they decided to sell to a money-losing Hitachi with no manufacturing scale instead of a private Seagate looking to hit the IPO market soon. Seagate+Conner was 1+1=1.5. Maxtor+Quantum is proving to be 1+1=1.5 and IBM+Hitachi will prove to be 1+1=1.5.... or even less.<g> Message 17349175 Should have posted that one before. What I am most pissed about the DD stocks disappearing in the fire and mist of ruthless greed is that our board was decimated in the process. However wrong we were on the commodification of DDs and the resulting collapse of the stocks, we had a witty, intelligent group of posters who were always fun to read and joust with. Well, everything passes in the ripeness of time. Sam