FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

READ-RITE ANNOUNCES QUALIFICATION AND VOLUME SHIPMENTS ON MAXTOR�S NEW 15GB AND 20GB DRIVE PROGRAMS

FREMONT, CA - August  24, 2000 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced its GMR heads are qualified on Maxtor Corporation�s DiamondMax Plus 45 hard disk drive program, a 15 GB per 3.5-inch platter 7200 rpm IDE drive and the DiamondMax 80 hard disk drive program, a 20 GB per 3.5-inch platter 5400 rpm IDE drive. Read-Rite is already in volume production and shipping GMR heads for these programs.

�We are delighted to have been chosen as a key supplier by Maxtor on its launch of the exciting DiamondMax Plus line of 7200rpm drives and the record-setting DiamondMax 80 high-capacity drive,� said Alan S. Lowe, president and chief executive officer. �These qualifications represent the fourth and fifth volume GMR programs with Maxtor this year. We look forward to continuing this strong working relationship with Maxtor on future programs.� The company noted that these GMR heads, both in the form of head gimbal assemblies (HGAs) and head stack assemblies (HSAs), will be manufactured out of its ISO 9002 and 14001 qualified production facility in Thailand.

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 and Singapore. 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 both custom and standard Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexers (DWDM) and other optical communication components to address the rapidly growing worldwide fiber-optic network expansion. The company is well funded by the backing of Read-Rite Corporation, Tyco Ventures and Integral Capital Partners. Scion's website is located at http://www.scionphotonics.com. 

This news release contains statements which include forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934, as amended, and is subject to the "safe harbor" created by those sections. These statements include, but are not limited to, the company's anticipation that the date of the automatic conversion will be no later than October 19, 2000; the company's expectation that there will be a charge of approximately $29 million in the current quarter for the interest premium Read-Rite will incur due to the conversion; and the company's expectation that this conversion will have a positive impact of $80 million over the next four fiscal years on the financial results of the company. The company's actual results for future periods could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. 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 Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 1999 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the first, second and third quarters of Fiscal Year 2000 ended December 29, 1999, April 2, 2000 and July 2, 2000, respectively. Read-Rite undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of such statements. 

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