2,000 Workers Facing Layoffs at MiniScribe

Offering yet more evidence of the slowdown in personal computer sales, MiniScribe Corp., a disk-drive maker, has announced that it will lay off about 2,000 people over the next four to five weeks.

MiniScribe, based in Longmont, Colo., is the second disk-drive maker this month to announce a major layoff due to slower sales. Earlier, Seagate Technology of Scotts Valley, Calif., said it was reducing its work force by about 25%, or 1,000 workers.

Analysts have attributed the layoffs at the disk-drive companies as well as at computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif., to a gradual slowing of sales of personal computers over the last few months. The slowdown from a torrid growth rate of more than 25% early in the year is expected to continue next year, when sales growth is expected to be about 10%.

Overseas Staffs Hit

David Claridge, an analyst with Hambrecht & Quist Inc. in San Francisco, said some disk-drive makers have inventory sitting on the shelf because of overly optimistic ordering from personal computer makers earlier this year.

Q. T. Wiles, MiniScribe chairman and chief executive, said about 240 employees will be laid off at the firm’s headquarters, with the remainder being let go from the company’s facilities in Singapore and Hong Kong. The layoffs will reduce the company’s work force in Longmont to 1,460 and overseas to about 6,500, company spokeswoman Jean Boyd said.

Wiles said the reduction was necessary because of lagging sales and overproduction. Earlier this year, the company reduced its sales projection for 1988 to between $630 million and $640 million from $750 million.