Western Digital Reports $106-Million Loss for Quarter

Irvine-based Western Digital Corp. said Wednesday it lost $106 million over the last three months--its eighth consecutive quarterly loss--as the company continued to suffer from falling prices and endured its first product recall.

The hard-drive manufacturer is in the throes of a three-year industrywide slump in desktop computer storage prices that has obliterated profit margins.

Western also said that last month’s recall of about 870,000 units resulted in lost gross profits of about $20 million. Company officials said the problems with a chip supplier that caused the recall have been addressed, although the company lost two weeks’ worth of production time.

The company took a one-time $37.7-million charge because of the recall and a restructuring charge of $32.3 million as a result of moving its desktop production from Singapore to Malaysia. The company also redeemed some of its stock debentures, resulting in a one-time gain of $90.6 million.

Excluding the nonrecurring charges and gains, the loss was $126.9 million, or $1.32 per share. Wall Street analysts had expected a loss of about $1.39 per share, according to First Call Corp. During the same period last year, the company lost $195 million, or $2.20 a share.

Revenue slumped 37% to $407 million.

Western Digital’s stock on Wednesday fell 13 cents, or 4%, to close at $3.31 on the New York Stock Exchange. Its earnings were released after the market closed.