SiliconBeat

Disk drive manufacturer Seagate Technology cited favorable demand and pricing for its products Wednesday when it raised its guidance for its fiscal 2009 fourth quarter.

The company, which is headquartered in the Cayman Islands but operates out of Scotts Valley, now expects sales to Read the rest of this entry »

Western Digital, the disk drive maker based in Southern California, said that demand in its current quarter is “tracking ahead of the expectations which (Western Digital) outlined in its last earnings call on April 23.” At that time, management projected sales in a range between $1.45 billion and $1.6 billion and earnings ranging from 16 to 26 cents per share.

The news was contained in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of Read the rest of this entry »

William Watkins, the former chief executive of Seagate Technology who departed in a January management shake-up by the disk drive manufacturer, was named Tuesday to the board of directors at Flextronics, the Singapore supplier of electronics contract manufacturing services with U.S. operations based in San Jose.

Watkins will be paid $60,000 for his service on the board and Read the rest of this entry »

Seagate Technology, which cut its most recent quarterly dividend 75 percent, said today it is discontinuing it altogether as a move to “further enhance liquidity” and reduce cash “outflows” by an estimated $60 million annually.

Last week, Seagate renegotiated some of the terms of its Read the rest of this entry »

In order to increase its “flexibility in meeting its obligations” under its current credit agreement”, Seagate Technology on Friday renegotiated some of the terms of its credit facility with JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, BNP Paribas, Keybank National, Wachovia and the Bank of Nova Scotia.

The new terms will allow the company’s “net leverage ratio” — basically the amount of debt it may hold divided by its cash and other short-term investments — to rise from Read the rest of this entry »

While some companies are trimming the size of their boards in order to save costs, Seagate Technology expanded its board by two to 11 members earlier this month to accommodate the appointments of former Motorola chief executive Ed Zanders and McAfee’s current chief financial officer, Rocky Pimentel.

Zander, who stepped down as Read the rest of this entry »

Seagate Technology, the Cayman Islands disk drive maker that operates out of Scotts Valley, today announced that it is terminating five senior vice-presidents and 17 vice-president-level employees Read the rest of this entry »

Seagate Technology is set to pay $2.5 million any day now to the chief executive it fired last month, according to the terms of his “separation and release” agreement the company filed Tuesday with the SEC as an amendment to its quarterly financials.

The money is to be paid to him with ten Read the rest of this entry »

Seagate Technology, the disk drive maker that’s in the process of cutting nearly 3,000 jobs, or about six percent of its worldwide work force, said Wednesday it would reduce the dividend it pays its shareholders by 75 percent, from 12 cents to 3 cents per share.

Seagate, a disk drive manufacturer that is based in the Cayman Islands but operates from Scotts Valley, lowered its guidance last month for its 2008 fourth quarter. Today it said preliminary results for that period show a net loss of $496 million on $2.3 billion in sales.

Last week the company removed its chief executive, William Watkins, replacing him with the company’s chairman and former CEO Stephen Luczo, and accepted the resignation of its chief operating officer.

Seagate Technology, the disk drive manufacturer that last week said it was going to reduce its worldwide work force by about six percent, said severance costs for the approximately 2,950 employees affected by the layoffs would be about $90 million. The layoffs include a reduction of its U.S. work force of 10 percent, indicating that workers in this country are absorbing a majority of the cuts.

The company estimated that it will take a charge of about $90 million, mostly in its 2008 fourth quarter, that will consist mainly of employee termination costs.

Seagate also said it would be reducing the salaries of certain management employees beginning in February, with pay for its chief executive and other executive officers being reduced 25 percent, for its senior vice presidents by 20 percent, its vice presidents by 15 percent, and for its management, sales, supervisors and professional employees by 10 percent.

The salary cuts will save the company about $80 million, $10 million less that the cost of severance being paid out to the nearly 3,000  employees it is firing.