WANGDAT BACKGROUND INFORMATION The company was founded in 1988, by Ben C. Wang in-order to develop low-cost, high capacity magnetic tape drives based on DAT technology. They now have 70 employees and gross annual sales of $12,000,000, and a market share in 1991 0f 13%. This has been achieved through a complementary blend of talents from leading OEM tape-drive companies, including Archive, Cipher Data, Storage Technology, Telex, DEI, Kennedy, Pertec Peripherals and Wangtek. WangDAT has gained a number of firsts to its credit : * First to introduce and volume ship a 5.25" HH DDS-compatible tape drive. * First major U.S. manufacturer of DAT drives. * First DAT drives from a DDS licensee tested and proven to comply with the DDS format standard * First with a high-capacity, 3GB HH DAT drive with fast 520KB/s transfer rate - double the speed and capacity of other DAT drives and exceeding that of 8mm tape drives achieved implementing data compression. * First to secure a volume contract from the U.S. Government. * First DAT drive manufacturer to announce a DAT loader conforming to the industry standard 5.25" form factor (Storing 20 - 32GB of data on 4 cassettes) TARGET SYSTEMS. Systems environments requiring more than 500MB of storage. PRODUCTS TO DATE. PRODUCT DATE RELEASED CAPACITY TRANSFER RATE FORM FACTOR OEM PRICE 1300 Q3'89 1.3GB 183KB/s 5.25"HH +900 2600 Q3'90 3GB 183 - 520KB/s 5.25"HH +1,100 3600 Q2'91 2 - 5.7GB 183 - 520KB/s 3.5"HH +1,200 3200 Q1'92 2 - 8GB 183 - 732KB/s* 3.5"HH +1,300 LD4 Autoloader Ancd. 20 - 32GB 44MB/min 5.25" <$8,000 Q4'91 (Q3'91) Note. * Wangdat uses the STAC 9703 Data Compression coprocessor. It will offer Drives that support either its Group Compression algorithm (which can be implemented more cheaply , compressing data 10 to 15% more effectively). Wangdat offers DC as a standard feature, but has no plans to incorporate both compression formats in a single drive. Their DAT solutions are compatible with the following operating systems - DOS, OS/2, Novell, UNIX/XENIX, VMS, IBM PC AT, PS/2, DEC, HP, Apple & SUN SUMMARY FOR EACH PRODUCT : Model 1300 - Announced in April'89, this was Wangdats first product. It was also the industries first half-height DAT drive to use computer quality components, rather than an audio mechanism. It is also DDS-compatible, supporting SCSI and SCSI-2. Model 2600 - Announced Sept'90, this was the first DDS DAT drive to encorporate hardware-based data compression. At the time this featured higher capacity, 50% more performance and lower cost in half the physical space than 8mm. The prformancce of this drive has been compared to HPs' 355480A and is said to have a better dollar-per-megabyte value. Model 3600 - A reduction in form factor to 3.5", and Group Compression format for local system backup, and longer length tape differentiated this product. This was aimed at advanced desktop systems and engineering workstations, positioned so OEMs can integrate into BOTH small and large scale systems across multiple system environments. Model 3200 - Model LD4 Autoloader - This compact four cassette DAT magazine can be inserted into a 5.25" form factor drive. It provides a 28% storage advantage over the planned 25GB 8mm DC Drive. It is desingned for very high-capacity system backup, secondary storage, and sophisticated data management applications. The loader mechanism and electronics incorporated were designed and manufactured by WangDAT. MANUFACTURING LOCATIONS Wangdat sources the basic DAT drive mechanism from Mitsumi Electric Company Ltd. of Tokyo. It then adds its own custom-designed chips and control electronics at its production and Marketing operations in CostaMesa (Where the headquarters are also situated) It is preparing for the growing DAT market by hiring entry-level engineers with storage-design experience. CHANNELS Wangdat sells to Small OEMs, VARs and regional distributors. These include : OEMs DECs' Digital-Kienzle GmbH - $1m of its Model 2600 VAR Emerald Systems Mountain Network Solutions (Filesafe 1200) CMS Enhancements Inc - uses a 5.25" Drive FWB Inc. - uses a 5.25" Drive Transitional Technology Inc (CTS-4 PlusM) Relax Technology Inc. - uses a 3.5" Drive listed at $1,599. MicroNet Technology Inc. KEY PERSONNEL Founder & Chairman of the board. - Dr Ben C.Wang. President and CEO. - Amyl Ahola. VP Operations. - Micheal G. de Nicola. VP Engineering. - Mike Newton. VP Quality. - Chuk Dow. VP Finance. - Rodney A.Bayne. SUMMARY Although a new company in a new industry it is further up its learning curve through its selective recruitment of managers from the industry. Despite a potential threat of only producing DAT backup products it allows for greater focus, and they do have a complete portfolio, covering every capacity, form factor and now autoloader. It gains its respect and market share by being the first to announce the ability to provide the next progresion in the DAT market. AQUISITION OF WANGDAT BY REXON Rexon and Wangdat have agreed in principle to the acquisition of Wangdat by Rexon in a merger or related transaction. This will have several consequences: * At the momment WangDAT has a relatively small cash base and little backing. Rexon is financially strong, with increasing revenue and earnings per share despite the market environment. * Rexon also owns Wangtek, which produces QIC and DAT Drives. Presently Wangtek holds 18% of the DAT market, but does not have an internal autoloader. There may be political pressure from above on these two companies so to not gain market share from each other, or Wangtek may shift emphasis onto QIC products. * WangDAT may gain easier access to the market through Tecmar, who produces personal computer enhancement products. * Rexon also owns Sytron, which develops and markets software for file back-up and archival systems for personal computers. * Rexon is therefore gaining a complete portfolio for the market, improving their market share standpoint and hence control.