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WANGDAT.TXT
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1993-03-08
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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.