Quantum Corp has decided Japan’s Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries Ltd can design, develop and build recording heads for its disk drives more cheaply than it can build them itself and has turned over its Shrewsbury, Massachusetts; Louisville, Colorado; and Batam, Indonesia plants to a joint venture called Matsushita-Kotobuki that will be 51% owned by the Japanese company. Quantum, the world’s second-largest vendor of hard disk drives, says it wants to focus on research and development and sales. All employees of Quantum’s existing recording heads operation will be retained by the venture, which will be run by Mark Jackson, president and general manager of Quantum’s recording heads group. Matsushita-Kotobuki, which is a major producer of video players, says it will contribute cash to the venture, presumably $200m of the $400m the venture is capitalized at.
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