FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

READ-RITE RAMPING PRODUCTION OF GMR HEADS FOR QUANTUM'S NEW HIGH PERFORMANCE 20GB PER PLATTER HARD DISK DRIVE PROGRAM 

FREMONT, CA - August  24, 2000 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced it is in the final stages of qualification and ramping production on its 20GB per 3.5" platter GMR heads for Quantum's new Fireball(tm) Plus AS disk drive program. This new leading edge, high-performance hard drive from Quantum will have capacities of 10.2 GB to 60 GB, at 7200 RPM with an average seek time of 8.5 ms.

"We are delighted to participate in Quantum's launch of this exciting new program. This advanced hard drive required pioneering technology in GMR head design which we provided with our own leading-edge technology. We look forward to providing more of the same to Quantum on future programs," said Alan Lowe, president and chief executive officer.

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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