History (1994): Almost All Main Storage Manufacturers Smiling Again

Almost all the main storage manufacturers are smiling again.

Their financial situation is getting better. But HDD makers are once more on allocation.

Much better quarter than previous one
In the last quarter of 1993, just about all the major independent storage device manufacturing companies remained or turned profitable compared with a disastrous third quarter.

Even Conner and StorageTek are coming out of the red. Only Maxtor mainly, with a $121 million loss, Iomega and Micropolis are in the red.

But by adding the results from all the large companies, we nevertheless come to a loss, insignificant, of $12 million. We’re back to stability.

And if we leave out Maxtor’s huge loss in last quarter, it’s even quite positive, even if it’s a bit less than in the last quarter of 92. 4Q92 to 4Q93, total sales also increased, up 4%.

Behind, EMC is still euphoric. Exabyte and Quantum are those who saw their sales increase the most. Especially Maxtor, Conner and StorageTek reported lower sales in 4093 compared with 4Q92.

Cumulated results of independent leaders In the data storage industry
(Seagate + Conner + Quantum + StorageTek + Western Digital + Maxtor + EMC + Micropolis + Exabyte + SyQuest + Iomega)

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue ≠73, published on February 1994.