One of the last icons of the hard disk drive industry is retiring.
After more than seven years with Western Digital Corp., Chuck Haggerty is stepping down as president and chief executive as of Thursday.
Taking his place at the ailing hard disk drive manufacturer is 38-year-old Matthew Massengill, who most recently served as the company's chief operating officer.
Thomas Pardun, president of MediaOne International-Asia/Pacific and a Western Digital director, will become chairman of Western Digital once the merger between AT&T Corp. and MediaOne is finalized. Haggerty is expected to continue to serve as chairman until the merger is finished, and then retire.
Last July, Western Digital went through a corporate restructuring during which Haggerty announced his intention to retire before June 2000. A month later, the company appointed Massengill and Russell Stern as co-chief operating officers. Stern resigned from the company in October, leaving Massengill as chief operating officer.
Haggerty leaves Western Digital during a time of turmoil for the company. In late October, the company announced a loss of $106.3 million, or $1.11 per share, on revenue of $407 million for the most recent financial quarter.
During the company's third quarter, it sold 3.4 million drives, down from the 5.7 million drives it sold during the previous quarter, said Dennis Waid, president of Peripheral Research Corp., Santa Barbara, Calif. Western Digital has become a weak player because of a recall of hard disk drives and poor financials.
Waid said he expects the transition to Massengill to be smooth.
The last year or so has been a tough one for top management at hard disk drive vendors. Last October saw the resignation of Larry Sanders as chief executive of Fujitsu Computer Products of America and Peter van Cuylenburg as president of Quantum Corp.'s DLT and Storage Systems Group. In July 1998, Al Shugart was forced to resign as chairman, president and chief executive of Seagate Technology Inc.
Haggerty's retirement was announced after the close of the stock market Thursday. The company's shares closed down 25 cents to $4.31. Shares have ranged from a high to $21.43 to a low of $2.75 over the past 52 weeks.
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