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Technology Stocks : Seagate Technology -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Howard S. who wrote (6428)	12/14/1998 1:38:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 7841

Seagate Technology Raises Output in Asia to Meet Higher Demand Bloomberg News December 11, 1998, 12:46 a.m. PT Seagate Technology Raises Output in Asia to Meet Higher Demand Singapore, Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Seagate Technology Inc., the world's largest disk drive maker, said seasonal demand is causing product shortages in almost two-fifths of its product lines. To meet the increase in orders, the Californian company is boosting production in its factories in Asia. ''There's been seasonal demand for personal computer disk drives since late September and that's accelerating,'' said Joel Stead, senior vice-president of international sales. Demand for its disk drives is particularly strong in Europe, he said. The outlook contrasts with the start of the year when excess stocks throughout the disk drive industry led Seagate to reduce obsolete products, fire workers, and reduce costs amid falling gross profit margins. In Singapore, Seagate -- the second largest private employer -- fired 1,800 workers or 10 percent of its workforce in January, the largest layoff this year for the island state. Any production jump in the disk drive industry is good news for the island state, where the output of these account for about 10 percent of gross domestic product. Seagate said its gross profit margins rose to 20.7 percent in the three months ended Oct. 2 from 18.9 percent in the previous quarter, following cost-cutting measures. It earned US$46 million, or 19 cents a share, before charges -- up from $20.3 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Still, sales fell 18 percent to $1.55 billion as demand sagged in that period. Seagate is expected to announce second- quarter fiscal earnings in mid-January. IBES International Inc.'s poll of 13 analysts shows an average forecast of 26 cents a share for the second quarter. ''Since September, there's been light at the end of the tunnel and the over-supply situation seems to have subsided. We should increase revenue, gross profit margins and profits'' for the current quarter, Stead said. More Orders Typically, computer companies order more components in the last quarter of the year to push new products for sale during Christmas. Also, governments and companies begin to purchase new computers for the next year. Analysts estimate that 30 percent of annual electronics orders are fulfilled in the last quarter. As Europe gears up for the monetary union in the new year, ''that's fueling demand for new IT (information technology) systems,'' Stead said. Demand is strong from work related to the so-called Y2K Bug, which creates computer-related problems as computers were not originally designed to distinguish the year 2000 from 1900. Meanwhile, the shortage of 3-, 4- and 6-gigabyte disk drives used for desktop computers is ''forcing people to buy 8- to 10- gigabyte products to meet demand,'' Stead said. ''It's an industry-wide shortage.'' As a result, Seagate is raising production for disk drives used in desktop computers at its China and Malaysia factories, and boosting output for high-end drives used in more complex computers at its Singapore plants, he said. Seagate has started shipping its Barracuda disk drives of up to 36.4 gigabytes of digital storage capacity, with production of a 50-gigabyte disk drive line in early 1999. It has also begun sending samples of its fastest-speed Cheetah disk drives of up to 36.4 gigabyte storage capacity for customer inspection; production is slated for March to meet orders, Stead said.

To: Howard S. who wrote (6428)	12/14/1998 1:40:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7841

Seagate Loses U.S. Supreme Court Bid to Kill Job-Bias Claims Bloomberg News December 14, 1998, 7:06 a.m. PT Seagate Loses U.S. Supreme Court Bid to Kill Job-Bias Claims Washington, Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Seagate Technology Inc. lost a U.S. Supreme Court bid to kill suits by seven former workers who say the world's largest independent computer disk- drive maker illegally discriminated against them when it cut 900 jobs from its Oklahoma City plant. The workers claim the company used race and age as considerations in the reduction, which stemmed from Seagate's decision to move some of its manufacturing work to Singapore. Seagate defeated those cases and another that claimed gender discrimination in a federal trial court. The workers appealed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which revived all the cases except for the gender discrimination claim. Seagate sought U.S. Supreme Court review of the decision that reinstated the seven race and age suits. The high court today rejected Seagate's appeal, which argued the workers failed to rebut the company's contention that it used legitimate, non-discriminatory, criteria in deciding which workers would lose their jobs. Seagate is based in Scotts Valley, California. The case is Seagate v. Beaird, 98-370.