History 2000: Quantum Cuts 900

Quantum’s brass wasted no time responding to the sub-par performance of its DLT division.

The firm has decided to delocalize its assembly operations for DLT drives from Colorado Springs, CO, to a lower-cost facility in Penang, Malaysia, initially for the manufacture of DLT4000 in the June quarter, then for the 7000 and 8000 models in the second half of the year.

Colorado will serve as the launch site for new products, more specifically the next SuperDLT unit, slated for volume production in 2H00.

As a result, however, 400 regular US employees will be laid off, in addition to a temporary workforce reduction of 500 during the next year. This corresponds to 37% of the firm’s employment in the DLT and storage systems group, and nearly half of its personnel in the city.

Quantum’s downsizing was one of the largest seen in Colorado Springs in the past decade, according to a local paper, The Gazette.

In 1995, Quantum moved its Colorado Springs HDD operations, acquired from Digital, to Malaysia, only to sell the plant to lomega the following year.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 146 on March 2000 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.