History (1998): Finis Conner Is Back

“Michael Jordan is back!” Around the world, fans celebrated the event of the 1995 basketball season.

In 1998, the resurrection of Finis Conner, 54, after nearly 2 years in the wilderness, is creating similar shock waves in the WW storage industry.

In the end, one can’t help but be fascinated by the destiny of the man who co-founded 3 of the largest firms in the business, if not the 3 largest: Shugart Associates, Seagate Technology and Conner Peripherals.

With Al Shugart and Tom Mitchell, he rounded out a trio of entrepreneurs who left their mark on the field since its beginnings, and whose rocky friendships (and enmities) shaped the history of the industry. And above all, it was he who transformed start-up Conner Peripherals into a $1.34 billion within 4 years of opening its doors, ending up with nearly $2.5 billion in yearly sales.

More than two years of forced R&R
Conner has been cooling his heels at home, in lovely Carmel, CA, since the end of 1995, when Seagate acquired Conner Peripherals. If he left with a sizable bundle, enough to live in the luxury to which he’s accustomed until the end of his days, in exchange, he was obliged to sign a non-competitive clause that prohibited him from playing the tiniest role in the storage industry until last February.

But now, he is “free” to no longer just play golf, his favorite pastime. Reached by phone, Conner recounted to us that his new firm is called Conner Technology, with headquarters in San Jose, but with, in addition, an R&D team in Colorado, European subsidiary (probably in Ireland) and manufacturing sites in Asia, although no country was specified.

Along with Finis Conner, who will be CEO and COB, the 2 other founders of the company are also veterans of Conner Peripherals: Peter Knight, president, and Jesse Parker, SVP of operations. Conner and Knight are currently the sole investors in the company.

In the early stages
“The goal of the company is to develop, manufacture and supply HDDs specifically for the sub $1,000 PC market,” said Finis Conner.

Most likely, 3.5-inch units with 1 or 2 platters, for under $100, with the accent on reliability, using available and seasoned technology. According to Conner, the first products should be available in 1Q99.

For the moment, the company is in the early stages: selecting engineers, vendors, etc. The web site (www.connercti.com or www.connerteck.com) was under construction as we were going to press.

Finis Conner is planning an innovative corporate model with an expense ratio lower than that of most manufacturers, and sales to a small number of OEMs only.

Occasionally, history does not repeat itself so much as contradict itself: Finis Conner left Seagate in 1984, primarily due to a disagreement with Al Shugart over the company’s strategy. In an old issue of The Business Journal, Ed Glassmeyer, then with Oak Investment Partners (which partially financed the startup of Shugart Technology, the precursor to Seagate) is quoted saying: “Finis wanted to move to a higher capacity, higher value product that would earn a higher margin.”

On the other hand, Conner has remained true to at least one of his old ideals: “The most successful company in the market selling high volume products will be one that within the first 2 years of its product’s life aggressively signs up the major OEMs in its marketplace,” he wrote in Computer Systems News in February 1988.

Is there room for yet another HDD manufacturer?
Is there still room for a new U.S. manufacturer of HDDs, in this age of mergers, when there are only 4 American players remaining in the game (IBM, Quantum, Seagate and WD)?

The last attempt, Tom Mitchell’s JTS, was not a success.

Can anyone resurrect Conner Peripherals, once the fastest-growing company in USA? True, Finis Conner has no intention of venturing into a new form factor, always risky, but rather will concentrate on a part of the market that is not heavily exploited by the leaders. But this shouldn’t last: there is no such thing as an HDD manufacturer without new projects up its sleeve. And some of them are well on their way (Fujitsu, Western Digital or Seagate, which should launch its new series, code name U2, in July) with low-cost HDDs, some closer to $80 than $100.

Expect a particularly bitter duel between Finis Conner and Al Shugart, that is to say, between Conner Technology and Seagate (not Shugart) Technology.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 125 on June 1998 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.

Note: The company could never deliver the low prices required for PC suppliers to switch, and shut down its operations in 1998 and merged with ExcelStor in 2001. Finis Conner is since 2018 business advisor in a company named Conner Group.