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

To: Mark Adams who wrote (1873)	12/21/1997 11:47:00 AM
From: Thomas Haegin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

Business opportunities for RDRT Mark, I may be posting old news here, but I'll take the risk: Bob Blair of IR at WDC recently told me that WDC buys all their read-heads from outside suppliers. WDC doesn't manuf. any heads themselves. However, Blair did not say specifically which cos. they were buying from. To this regard there was a post by Pierre on the WDC thread recently, I think it may heve been his reply to my discussion with Blair that was reposted here also. As I understood Blair, the only thing that WDC does manuf. themselves is 40% of the media (magnetic platters) they use. For this they have plant in CA. They also design the electronic parts/components of their HDD drives (I guess chips and circuits, etc.), but they outsource the manufacturing process for their electronics also. Viewed from this perspective, I assume that WDC can move more quickly in times of lower demand/overcapacity, but may feel more supply pressures/price disadvantages when demand rises strongly again. At present I would think that WDC is at a slight advantage over their more integrated competitors. But I'm taking a guess only. I'm not in the DD business myself. Thomas

To: Mark Adams who wrote (1873)	12/21/1997 2:01:00 PM
From: Gottfried	Respond to of 9256

Mark, >Can't believe these companies think integrating the entire process internally is the way to go. When things slow down, you can't just shaft your supplier by cutting orders when you are your supplier.< In the case of IBM, making their own heads comes naturally. They made MR heads long before anyone else knew how. This long experience must be good for better yield, and -I hope - lower cost. GM