FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
READ-RITE CEMENTS GMR LEADERSHIP WITH OVERWHELMING ACCEPTANCE OF ITS 20GB PER PLATTER DESIGNS AND SEPARATELY ANNOUNCES QUALIFICATIONS ON OTHER ENTERPRISE AND HIGH-PERFORMANCE CUSTOMER PROGRAMS
FREMONT, CA - August 24, 2000 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced that its GMR heads have been selected for 20GB per 3.5" platter platforms at all four of its major customers. The company is already shipping large volumes of these industry-leading GMR heads. In addition, the company separately announced the qualification of its Fremont wafer facility in connection with volume purchase orders for a major enterprise drive program, and the qualification and volume shipments for another major high-performance 7200 rpm drive platform. The company will separately announce specific details on customer qualifications later today. All of these products were developed and are being produced at its Fremont, California R&D center and wafer fab facility. The head gimbal assemblies and head stack assemblies are being produced and shipped to customers from its ISO 9002 and 14001 qualified facility in Thailand.
"Our customer 'grand slam' on these 20GB qualifications and orders, which we expect will comprise the bulk of our shipments as we exit this quarter, clearly demonstrates the company's technology leadership position on these and the other programs announced today," said Alan S. Lowe, president and chief executive officer. "These announcements represent a significant turning point for the company's return to profitability goal, and we expect our industry-leading GMR technology will continue to provide our customers with a competitive advantage on future programs."
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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