READ-RITE CORPORATION ANNOUNCES THE APPOINTMENT OF DR. SANJOY GHOSE AS VICE PRESIDENT, PRODUCT ENGINEERING

FREMONT, CA � April 30, 2001 � Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced that Dr. Sanjoy Ghose has joined the company as vice president, Product Engineering.  Dr. Ghose has an extensive technical and managerial background of which previous positions have included the following: Executive VP Engineering of Siros Technologies; VP and CTO for Micropolis; VP Engineering for Seagate Technologies; VP Engineering of Commodore Business Machines; President and CEO of Pacific Research, Inc. and ten years at IBM in a variety of positions.

Dr. Ghose holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, an MSME from UC Berkeley, a BE in Mechanical Engineering from Calcutta University (India).  In addition to being published in several technical publications, both academic and professional, he holds twenty U.S. and foreign patents and is a frequent speaker and participant at major industry conferences and panels. 

Mark Re, senior vice president, Research and Development commented that, "we are very eager to have Sanjoy as part of the Read-Rite team. With his exceptional technical background and industry expertise, he will make immediate contributions in maintaining our industry leadership on our next generation of products." 

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, the 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. an integrated solution provider to the fiber optics industry whose offerings include advanced Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexers (DWDM), contract manufacturing services and fiber optic assembly equipment.  Scion's website is located at http://www.scionphotonics.com.  

This release may contain forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from the expectations contained in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, the factors described in the company's reports filed with the SEC, including, but not limited to, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 2000 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2001 ended December 31, 2000. Read-Rite undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of such statements.

  ###