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Technology Stocks : Western Digital (WDC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Carey Thompson who wrote (9853)	10/14/1998 4:08:00 PM
From: fiberman	Respond to of 11057

/14 13:35 Seagate Technology profits rise before charges By Duncan Martell SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Seagate Technology Inc. <SEG.N> said its fiscal first-quarter profit before charges more than doubled, as the No. 1 computer disk-drive maker continued to cut costs, but the company reported a net loss for the period. Including charges of $84 million in the latest quarter, Seagate had a loss of $30 million, or 12 cents a share, versus a year-ago loss of $240 million, or 98 cents a share. Revenues fell to $1.55 billion from $1.9 billion. Excluding the charges, Seagate had a profit of $46 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with 8 cents a share before charges in the year-ago period. The company did not provide year-ago profit before charges except on a per-share basis. Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Seagate was forecast to earn 17 cents a share, according to First Call Corp., which tracks analysts' estimates. Seagate has been working in the past several quarters to bring new products to market faster, cut costs and streamline businesses. It is also getting out of businesses such as semiconductors used in its disk drives and has said it will sell part of its storage software business. "This was a good quarter and we showed good growth in gross margins," Woody Munroy, a Seagate spokesman said. The company exited the quarter, which ended Oct. 2, with about $1.8 billion in cash, Munroy said. Seagate's gross margin widened to 20.7 percent from 15.6 percent in the year-ago period. Even so, the overall market for disk drives remains tough, Munroy said. Competition is intense and prices continue to fall, though not as rapidly as they had been falling. In the past year, disk drive makers such as Seagate, Quantum Corp. <QNTM.O> and Western Digital Corp. <WDC.N> have been hammered by a glut of drives, falling prices, intense competition and the popularity of sub-$1,000 personal computers. Cheaper PCs require drives that have less storage space and carry slimmer profit margins. "It's still a very competitive market out there," Munroy said. The company also said on Wednesday it is seeking a buyer for its microchip plant in Livingston, Scotland, and may take a charge in its fiscal second quarter. On Oct. 5, VERITAS Software Corp. <VRTS.O> said it agreed to buy the Network and Storage Management Group of Seagate Software, a unit of Seagate Technology, for about $1.6 billion. In the first quarter, Seagate had a $77 million charge related to the August 1997 purchase of Quinta Corp. and $7 million associated to the separation agreement with Seagate's co-founder and former chairman, Al Shugart. The board ousted Shugart on July 21 -- 19 years after he co-founded the company. I wonder how bad we will be hit once WDC announces the s*y quarter and big loss on Monday? Not a pretty picture. There seems to be no consolidation in the horizon either. That is a damn shame. There is just simply not enough business for these 6 major palyers to go on and make money. I think 2 or even 3 will disappear by some form within the next 6 months. To make matters even worse, now jerks like Finis Conner are trying their best to destroy even the s*y marker that currently exist.

To: Carey Thompson who wrote (9853)	10/15/1998 3:38:00 AM
From: La Traguhs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11057

Carey, Thanks for your info! Regards, LT

To: Carey Thompson who wrote (9853)	10/21/1998 2:26:00 AM
From: fiberman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 11057

I listened to the CC very carefully. It seems like they are getting their s***s together. How significant is this new 4.3G/Plat form technology? Does any one know? Could you please explain? Chuck kept on insisting that they will be the leader, after IBM, on the technology for the desktop HDD market segment. They will introduce their first 18G, ultra low SCSI drive soon. How important is that? How does it compare to Maxtor and SEG's new products?