Siemens AG still hasn’t settled on a quick way into the 3.5 OEM disk drive market, but according to Electronic News, there is a 50-50 chance that it will do Scotland’s Rodime Plc – and its unhappy shareholders – a big favour by licensing one of its 3.5 designs. The other company in the frame is Conner Peripherals Inc – but Conner already has a manufacturing joint venture for Europe with Ing C Olivetti & Co SpA – that joint venture reportedly lost $1.5m on sales of $70m last year – and is planning its own plant in Scotland. Siemens’ interest in the 3.5 disk drive market was flagged last August, and a whole string of companies – Priam, MiniScribe (both of which later filed for bankruptcy protection), Micropolis, Comport and Areal Technology – were all named as possible suppliers of 3.5 technology to Siemens (CI No 1,235).
