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

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (1616)	11/23/1997 7:15:00 PM
From: Frodo Baxter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

>Yes, it doesn't seem to make sense for Samsung to go after this business when they have so many other irons in the fire, but when you think they now buy a large portion of drives for use with their Acer computer line, maybe it makes sense to produce some of these drives internally. Acer is Acer. Samsung owns AST. >If you subscribe to the vertical integration theory for drive makers, why not for PC makers? Uh... because vertical integration doesn't work? Packard Bell, AST, Maxtor, Micropolis... they were turkeys when they got bought out; they're bigger turkeys now. When will people learn, you don't buy tech because they're cheap. The only cheap tech is dead tech.

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (1616)	11/23/1997 11:56:00 PM
From: Gus	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9256

Maxtor has been a pretty successful story for Hyundai, or so it appears from the outside. Maxtor is still unprofitable but the turnaround is well underway. For example, they went from being in programs at only 2 of the top 10 PC makers last year to being in programs at 8 of the top 10 PC makers this year. The unit shipments tell a similar story. March quarter - 1.3-1.4 million June quarter - 1.7 million Sept. quarter - 2.5 million At the start of the year they had DD assembly capacity of about 12 million a year, or about 3 million units/quarter. If they can sustain their unit growth in the next quarter or two they will have to add more capacity, especially since unit shipments are still expected to grow in the 20-25% range next year. I believe they're adding a new platter factory in Malaysia and a new disk drive assembly factory in China.

To: Mark Oliver who wrote (1616)	11/24/1997 9:10:00 AM
From: Z Analyzer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

<<Maxtor has been a pretty successful story for Hyundai, or so it appears from the outside.>> Maxtor lost $123 million in the year ended March 30, 1996 and another $193 milion in the six months ended Sept 28, 1996, the latest for which I have financials. Recently they have been seeling drives at low prices. They lack the economies of scale of the top three and there's no reason to believe they have suddenly become as efficient as Quantum or WDC. I suspect the acquisition must objectively be viewd as a disaster even if it has now become profitable.