Western Digital Launches New Hard Drive Line

Western Digital Corp. has expanded its hard-drive offerings in a fast-growing part of the computer market, spurring some buying activity Monday in the Irvine company’s depressed shares.

After rising as much as 13%, Western Digital shares settled to close at $2.94, up 13 cents on heavy volume of 3.7 million shares. Average volume on the NYSE-traded shares is 2.3 million.

The activity was apparently prompted by the disk-drive maker’s launch of its WD Vantage hard drives. These drives, which have capacities of up to 18.3 gigabytes, are designed for the “low end of the high end,” Western Digital said.

Such applications include entry-level servers, network-attached storage units, technical workstations and high-performance personal computers. However, one analyst said the offering was a case of “too little too late.”

Western Digital has had problems ramping production of its mainstay desktop disk drives during the current second quarter, said David Takata, a Gruntal & Co. analyst who has followed Western Digital for some time. “The issue is really to regain lost market share on the desktop before you can try to go after other people’s market share in the high end,” Takata said.

Western Digital, once a standout high-technology company, has withered in the face of long-term oversupply and price competition in the disk-drive industry. Its shares traded as high as $54.75 in August 1997.