StorMedia Inc, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week (CI No 3,515) has closed its doors, laying off its 1,400 workers, according to the San Jose Mercury. The Santa Clara-based thin film disk drive maker will attempt to sell off its remaining assets, including manufacturing operations in Singapore and Malaysia, and intellectual property. StorMedia reported net losses of $48.7m on revenues of $63.2m for the first six months of 1998. The company said in July that it had successfully restructured its debt and raised capital through debt and equity financings. But company president Stephen Abely told the Mercury we simply ran out of money. 1,000 of the lost jobs are in California, the remaining 400 in the Far East. StorMedia, which lost a large customer last year when Micropolis Inc closed operations, was facing a further loss of business from Seagate Technologies Inc, which as part of its own re-structuring said it planned to manufacture more of its own platters for its drives. Seagate accounted for some 62% of StorMedia’s sales last year.
