Seagate Names New COO, Sets Reorganization

Seagate Technology Inc., the top maker of computer disk drives, appointed industry veteran William Watkins as chief operating officer and announced a reorganization of some of its units. Watkins, formerly head of the company’s disk drive operations and chief operating officer for the unit that makes magnetic heads for reading and writing data on the drives, will now head up the making of the drives, the platters used in them and the recording heads. The reorganization includes a $30-million investment to start a new disk drive research center and the consolidation of marketing and product management under Seagate’s desktop and high-end disk drive division. The action comes less than three weeks after Scotts Valley-based Seagate’s board fired industry icon, co-founder and former Chief Executive Al Shugart. Seagate, along with other U.S.-based disk drive companies, has been struggling in the last year and a half with excess capacity and plunging prices. Seagate also said Brendan Hegarty, head of its recording heads group, will leave at the end of the current quarter. He will be succeeded by Patrick Bonnie. Seagate’s stock fell 75 cents to close at $24.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.