Conner Peripherals Inc is cutting about 140 full time employees at its San Jose headquarters following its its decision to discontinue its older Summit Series of 3.5 disk drives and move production of high-performance 3.5 Aegean drives to its Singapore plant. It says that the decision is consistent with Conner’s global manufacturing strategy to launch new high capacity products in San Jose or Colorado and move them to the company’s Singapore or Malaysia facilities when they reach volume production. The action also reflects the extremely competitive condition of the disk drive industry, including the current price wars and oversupply in certain product areas. Another 45 employees have accepted positions with Conner’s expanding disk media division in Milpitas, California.
