Lake Forest-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. cut prices for laptop drives in the first quarter in a market share battle with Hitachi Ltd., according to Bill Watkins, chief executive of top drive maker Seagate Technology LLC.
Western Digital and Hitachi cut prices to boost shipments of drives for laptop computers, Watkins told Barron’s.
Seagate opted not to cut prices, leading to a decline in March quarter revenue at the company.
Word of a price war would confirm analysts’ suspicions that a year of stable prices and supply are coming to an end in the volatile drive industry.
Western Digital, the industry’s No. 2 drive maker, has seen a 60% rise in its stock in the past year on a recent market value of $6 billion.
“Things got dicey” in the first quarter for drive makers, Watkins said.
“People started doing deals,” he told Barron’s.
For the recently ended quarter, Seagate missed revenue forecasts amid weaker sales of laptop drives and those sold at stores.
The news led to another downgrade of Western Digital, this time by Caris & Co., which changed the company’s stock from “above average” to “average.”
Western Digital saw two other downgrades in recent weeks.
