With the prospect that business from its former parent Unisys Corp will dwindle to the point that it will no longer support the Santa Clara company in the manner to which it has become accustomed, newly-formed Sequel Inc, the management buyout of the old Memorex plant (CI No 1,323), has declared its intent to take in other peoples’ washing, offering to support 14, 8 and 9 computer head-disk assemblies manufactured by other companies. Sequel brings together several former Unisys divisions that have provided world-wide support for Unisys head-disk assemblies since 1981. Sequel will also continue to sell oxide disks to other disk assembly manufacturers. The Sequel management team comprises nine former Unisys managers with an average of 11 years of experience in the disk market. Sequel starts life with over 600 employees, 100 of them engineers and scientists in the head-disk assembly field, with an average of 10 years experience in the disk drive business. Sequel will occupy over 350,000 square feet of manufacturing and engineering space in Santa Clara, which includes 40,000 square feet of cleanroom area. The total market for 14 assemblies is estimated at 3.1m units, for 8 and 9 drives at 3.5m units, and as well as offering service to OEM integrators of third party disk drives, it is opening its manufacturing and refurbishment skills to independent service firms.
