History (1999): WD Quits Disk Platter Business

The only HDD drive’s components Western Digital manufactured itself were magnetic media.

Now, the company has signed a letter of intent to sell this Singapore-based activity to Komag for approximately $80 million in Komag common stock.

In 1988, it entered the disk media business, which provided 61% of its desktop disk requirements in 1998.

Under the agreement, Komag will supply Western Digital with a substantial portion of its media for 3 years.

Komag, which has a big factory in Penang, Malaysia, has long worked with Western Digital, one of its largest customers (along with Maxtor and IBM). Last quarter, nearly 90% of WD’s total media used by Western Digital for its HDDs were supplied by disks from both companies.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 134 on March 1999 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.