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From: foss@iris.ucdavis.edu (Jim Alves-Foss)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs,comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Miniscribe troubles
Message-ID: <6152@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Date: 4 Dec 89 23:03:50 GMT
Sender: uucp@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
Reply-To: foss@iris.ucdavis.edu (Jim Alves-Foss)
Organization: U.C. Davis - Department of Electrical Engineering and Comp Sci
Lines: 38

The following is from "San Jose Mercury News" Sat, Dec 2, 1989 page 13F
(reprinted without permission).

  Miniscribe Corp. of Longmont, Colo., a troubled maker of disk drives for
  personal computers, announced a major restructuring program Friday that
  includes laying off of 110 employees immediately and an unspecified
  number of additional workers in March.

  In September, Miniscribe stunned the computer industry  by releasing 
  results of an internal investigation that uncovered mass fraud behind
  the company's apparent sales growth -- including packing bricks into
  disk drive boxes and shipping the boxes to warehouses.

  Q.T Wiles, former chairman of the San Francisco investment banking firm
  Hambrecht & Quist, was chairman of Miniscribe from 1985 until early this 
  year. Through his lawyer, Wiles has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing
  at the company.

  On Friday, Miniscribe said it is phasing out production of 5 1/4-inch disk
  drives and all but two of its existing 3 1/3-inch disk drives in order
  to focus on introducing a new series of ultra-compact 3 1/2-inch drives.

  The reorganization includes a $40 million write-off, which will add to 
  Miniscribe's negative net worth of $88 million.

  Miniscribe also will cease production in the United States while
  retaining manufacturing facilities in Hong Knog and Singapore. "The decision
  ... was the only one (Miniscribe) could make iunder the circumstances,"
  the company said in a prepared statement.

  Miniscribe announced the restructuring after the stock markets closed Friday.
  In Over-the-Counter trading, Miniscribe closed down 13 cents at 75 cents
  a share.

I hope this explains some of the rumors we've been seeing here.

-Jim Alves-Foss (foss@iris.ucdavis.edu)  /* Of course these are MY opinions */
                (foss@[127.120.57.20])   /* and may change without warning. */


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