FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

READ-RITE ANNOUNCES SECOND QUARTER REVENUE OF $154 MILLION AND WILL REALIZE AN EXTRAORDINARY GAIN OF APPROXIMATELY $159 MILLION FROM THE EXCHANGE NOTE OFFERING AND APPROXIMATELY A $92 MILLION CHARGE FOR THE CONSOLIDATION OF ITS WAFER FAB AND HEAD STACK OPERATIONS

 MILPITAS, CA � April 6, 2000 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced its revenues for the second quarter ended April 2, 2000 were approximately $154 million, a 35% increase from the first quarter ended December 26, 1999. Read-Rite shipped approximately 17.4 million head gimbal assemblies during the fourteen week quarter, representing approximately a 60% increase over the number of head gimbal assemblies shipped in the first quarter of the fiscal year, a thirteen week quarter. GMR heads represented approximately 95% of total shipments, and more than double the unit volume of GMR heads shipped in the December quarter. Competitive pricing pressures continued throughout the quarter, and the company will report a loss for the second quarter but will show an improvement in gross margin and operating results as compared to the first quarter of the fiscal year.

Read-Rite anticipates recording an extraordinary gain of approximately $159 million from the exchange offer of its 6-�% convertible notes for 10% convertible notes. Approximately 94%, or $325 million, of the 6-�% notes were exchanged for approximately $163 million of new 10% notes.

The company will also record a charge of approximately $92 million, after minority interest, from the consolidation of its wafer fab and head stack operations. The bulk of the charge will be recorded in the second fiscal quarter, with the remainder of the charge being taken in the third fiscal quarter. The company anticipates the cash component of this charge to be approximately $15 million, after minority interest. Read-Rite anticipates future quarterly savings of approximately $15 million from the consolidation.

With the continued productivity improvements and more efficient capacity utilization at the Fremont wafer fab, the company�s efforts to reduce fixed costs, and to better focus its technical resources in one wafer fab, the company today announced the dissolution of Read-Rite SMI, its joint venture in Japan with Sumitomo Metals Industries, Ltd. Read-Rite will establish a product engineering, sales, and procurement office in Japan to continue to support the company�s customers and suppliers in Japan. The transition to the Fremont wafer fab of the products currently designed and manufactured in Japan will occur between now and the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, with manufacturing in Japan anticipated to wind down in the July time frame.

In addition, the company also announced today the consolidation of its Philippine head stack operations into the company�s operations in Thailand, bringing all head gimbal assembly and head stack assembly production into its Thailand facility. The consolidation will provide a quicker response to customer changes, lower the company�s fixed costs and improve the cycle time from head gimbal assemblies to head stack assemblies. Read-Rite will continue to maintain its tape head operations in the Philippines.

Read-Rite will announce results for the second fiscal quarter on April 26, 2000 and will have additional comments at that time.

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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