ATL Rolls Out New Product; Olympic Record for Tickets.com
Maxtor Corp.’s recently announced plans to buy Quantum Corp.’s disk drive business is OK by Matthew Massengill, chief executive of Irvine-based Western Digital Corp.
“It means there is one less company on the market floating bids to the customers,” Massengill told CNET Networks Inc.’s News.com.
Milpitas-based Maxtor said on Oct. 4 that it plans to buy Quantum’s drive business, also based in Milpitas, for about $1.3 billion. The combined company would count $6 billion in annual sales, topping Western Digital’s $2 billion in yearly sales. Industry leader Seagate Technology Inc. has $6.5 billion in annual sales but is being broken apart in a restructuring.
Even with continued growth in the PC and storage markets, drive makers are facing oversupply, low prices, shrinking profits and layoffs.
“This (merger) is a very positive event for the drive industry,” Massengill said. “It was pretty clear that the industry could not operate the way it had been without a structural change.”
Massengill contends the merger is bound to erode the market share of the combined Maxtor and Quantum.
“No matter how you slice it, there will be some loss of share, and we undoubtedly will receive some of that,” he said.
ATL Unveils New Storage System
Irvine-based ATL, a unit of Quantum’s DLT and Storage Systems Group that isn’t part of the Maxtor deal, announced the release of LANvault 200 V2, which it’s targeting at smaller businesses and remote sites of big corporations that need to back up data on tape.
LANvault integrates a tape autoloader, server and backup application into one product that can be installed by anyone in the organization with virtually no training. This allows smaller companies to implement automated backup without the expense and hassles of system design, procurement and installation.
Tickets.com Scores with Olympics
Tickets.com is doing a brisk business selling tickets for the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games. The Costa Mesa-based company did a record-setting $23 million in tickets sales on Oct. 10, the first day of ticketing for the games.
The request for tickets represents a 181% increase from the previous Winter Olympics and exceeded the initial projection of $8 million.
“First-day sales have blown away our projections,” said Mitt Romney, President and chief executive of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.
W. Thomas Gimple, co-chairman and chief executive of Tickets.com said, “We’ve been able to use technology to fundamentally improve the experience and offer consumers everywhere a fair, equitable and convenient way to purchase some of the most coveted tickets in the world.”
Tickets.com released the following statistics for the first day of 2002 Olympic ticket sales: 2.8 million total Web hits; 11,578 orders received; and 208,404 tickets sold worth $23.2 million. The top five states ordering online were Utah, California, Colorado, Illinois and Arizona.
Tech Gurus in Newport Beach
Two high tech gurus, Netscape founder Jim Clark and Tom Jermoluk, general partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, were at Newport Beach’s Four Seasons Hotel recently to promote their latest venture, Mountain View-based MyCFO Inc. The advisory firm for wealthy clients opened an office in Irvine earlier this month.
Here are some of the highlights from Clark and Jermoluk’s chat, which was moderated by Business Journal Publisher Richard Reisman:
n Clark said the key to Silicon Valley was Stanford University being flexible with its patents for technology.
n Jermoluk doesn’t see any other place overtaking Silicon Valley as the world’s tech center. “It’s such an engine. It will continue to be dominant.”
n Jermoluk on why venture capitalists invest so much in Silicon Valley compared to elsewhere: “There are so many things in Silicon Valley. Venture capitalists don’t want to travel.”
n Jermoluk on what’s in short supply: “Money is everywhere, ideas are cheap. But getting the people to do them is a problem.”
n Clark said the Internet’s impact should be best compared to the telephone.
n Jermoluk said the Internet is “under-hyped.”
n Clark, whose Netscape was of the first to complain about Microsoft Corp.’s power, said, “Microsoft still has the same type of grip on the PC operating system. And PC is still the biggest phenomenon going. It’s not in danger of being replaced. There’s a lot of growth opportunities for that company outside the U.S. And I view PCs as like cars. You replace them every few years.”
n Clark said the secret to online advertising hasn’t yet been found.
n Jermoluk joked, “I hang around Jim so he’s not the smartest person he knows.”
A Real Junky Site
Everyone knows there’s a lot of junk out there on Web sites. But one, Irvine-based Planet Salvage Inc., actually trades in junk. Planet Salvage is an e-commerce site for auto salvage buyers and sellers. It recently announced that it’s working with Irvine-based ProcessClaims.com to provide service for salvage parts ordering as part of the collision repair process. Via the ProcessClaims.com Web site, an estimate is processed, and interfaces to the PlanetSalvage.com Web site for location of recycled parts and facilitation of the procurement process. Scott Petersen, Planet Salvage president and chief executive said the company selected ProcessClaims.com because of its technology.
