FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

READ-RITE SUCESSFULLY OBTAINS AMENDMENT TO ITS BANK CREDIT FACILITY THROUGH MAY 25TH

MILPITAS, CA - February 3, 2000 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced it has reduced the borrowings under its bank credit facility by an additional $15 million to $71.25 million and that the company has obtained a waiver, forbearance and amendment to its bank credit facility through May 25, 2000. The current waiver replaces the waiver and amendment which would have expired February 25, 2000, with the banks continuing to reserve the right to block the interest payment due March 1, 2000 on its existing convertible notes. The company will proceed in the near future with its recently filed registration statement for its exchange offer of 10% Convertible Subordinated Notes due September 1, 2004 for its 6�% Convertible Subordinated Notes due September 1, 2004. Since September 1999, the company has reduced its outstanding balances under the bank credit facility from $142.5 million to $71.25 million and the company's current plan is to complete the exchange offer, raise additional cash proceeds from the sale of additional exchange notes and to refinance the existing bank facility as soon as possible.

 

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 Milpitas, California and has operations in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. The company�s home page on the world wide web can be reached at http://www.readrite.com.

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