FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE READ-RITE EARNINGS AND REVENUE SURPASS ESTIMATES FOR FIRST QUARTER; COMPANY  ANNOUNCES RETURN TO PROFITABILITY AS REVENUES GROW 30% FROM THE PRIOR QUARTER FREMONT, CA - January 4,  2001 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT)  today announced that the company will be releasing greater than expected earnings and revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2001. The company recorded a 30% increase in revenues to over $189 million from $145.9 million in the September quarter. Alan S. Lowe, president and chief executive officer, stated that �the company will return to profitability this quarter and will exceed industry estimates regarding earnings per share. We are excited by this financial performance and we are hopeful it will continue as the company strives to gain additional market share during the coming year.� More details will be available when the company formally releases its earnings and discusses the quarter�s results in a conference call at 5 p.m. (EST) on January 24, 2001 after the close of the market.  Read-Rite Corporation is one of the world's leading independent manufacturers of magnetic recording heads, head gimbal assemblies (HGAs) and head stack assemblies (HSAs) for disk drives and tape drives.  The company is headquartered in Fremont, California and has operations in California, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.  The company's website is located at http://www.readrite.com.  Read-Rite is also the majority shareholder of Scion Photonics, Inc. which designs, develops, manufactures and sells optical communication components.  Scion's website is located at http://www.scionphotonics.com.                                                                                                                                                      # # # # Last Updated: December 2012 ©2012 Read-Rite Corporation. All rights reserved.