WD® Founds New Storage Association to Promote the Critical Role of Magnetic Storage Technologies

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WD®, a Western Digital® (NASDAQ: WDC) company, announced that it has founded the Storage Products Association (SPA) with other hard drive companies to promote the merits and value of rotating magnetic storage technologies, as well as to make consumers and professionals aware of how critical hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid-state hybrid drives (SSHDs) are to their digital lives.

SPA members include HGST, Seagate, Toshiba and WD. The organization helps storage manufacturers and users understand and support current and future storage needs, including the key role of hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state hybrid drives, in an effective storage mix for all consumer and business environments. SPA will provide education to its customers, partners, members and users of HDDs and SSHDs. SPA will also participate in industry and user events, and will publish materials about end users’ storage needs and effective usage of a mix of storage technologies.

“Driven by continued, rapid expansion of digital content production, demand for storage is expected to grow in the mid-30s percent range annually through 2020,” said Tim Leyden, WD president. ”While, in that timeframe, a mix of technologies will be deployed to appropriately serve customers, about 75 percent of the capacity is still expected to be rotating magnetic storage devices. Every user of smart phones, tablets and personal computers today depends on the value and reliability of HDDs or SSHDs to secure their precious data, whether the storage is in their device or in the cloud. SPA will help consumers and businesses appreciate the value of their growing content storage needs and the remarkable rotating magnetic technologies that save and protect that content.”

SPA is making its debut at the Flash Memory Summit, beginning today at the Santa Clara Convention Center. At 8:30 a.m. today, SPA member companies will participate in a panel titled, “Solid State Hybrid Drives Help Meet Today’s Storage Requirements” to discuss the role of hard disk drives and solid state hybrid drives. John Rydning, IDC research vice president for hard disk drives, will moderate the panel.

For more information and SPA, go to www.storage-products-association.org

and on Twitter, @storageproducts.

Western Digital® Announces Fiscal Year Revenue of US$15.4 Billion and Non-GAAP Net Income of US$2.1 Billion, or US$8.53 Per Share1

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For Fourth Quarter, Revenue of US$3.7 Billion, Non-GAAP Net Income of US$477 Million, or US$1.96 Per Share

MANILA, Philippines — July 29, 2013 — Western Digital® Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today reported revenue of US$15.4 billion and net income of US$1.7 billion, or US$6.75 per share for fiscal year 2013, compared to fiscal 2012 revenue of US$12.5 billion and net income of US$1.6 billion, or US$6.58 per share. On a non-GAAP basis, fiscal 2013 net income was US$2.1 billion or US$8.53 per share, compared to fiscal 2012 net income of US$2.1 billion or US$8.61 per share.¹

For its fourth fiscal quarter ended June 28, 2013, the company reported revenue of US$3.7 billion, hard-drive shipments of 59.9 million and net income of US$416 million, or US$1.71 per share. On a non-GAAP basis, net income was US$477 million or US$1.96 per share.² In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of US$4.8 billion, net income of US$745 million, or US$2.87 per share, and shipped 71.0 million hard drives. Non-GAAP net income in the year-ago quarter was US$872 million, or US$3.35 per share.³

The company generated US$684 million in cash from operations during the June quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of US$4.3 billion. For fiscal year 2013, the company generated US$3.1 billion in cash from operations and its free cash flow totaled US$2.2 billion.⁴ During the quarter, the company utilized US$235 million to buy back 4.4 million shares of common stock. On May 15, the company declared a US$0.25 per common share dividend, which was paid on July 15.

“I am pleased with our performance in fiscal year 2013 and the June quarter, reflecting our expanding participation in the storage market, including the cloud and personal storage as we address the ongoing growth in digital data,” said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer of Western Digital. “Our financial results were strong with significant free cash flow generation, we continued to forecast the market accurately and we had outstanding execution by our HGST and WD® subsidiaries.”

As reported in our Form 8-K filed on July 22, 2013, the Court of Appeals of the State of Minnesota reversed the decision of the District Court of Hennepin County, Minnesota, which had vacated a US$630.4 million final arbitration award against the company and ordered a rehearing of certain claims in the arbitration between Western Digital and Seagate Technology, LLC. The financial information reported in this press release does not include any additional accrual for the arbitration award. Western Digital is reviewing the decision of the Minnesota Court of Appeals and will make a determination of whether or not to record an accrual in its results for the quarter ended June 28, 2013, after it completes its review. 

About Western Digital

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is a global provider of products and services that empower people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. Its subsidiaries design and manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home entertainment products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands. Visit the Investor section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 concerning the company’s market participation and growth of digital data. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statement, including the impact of continued uncertainty and volatility in global economic conditions; supply and demand conditions in the hard drive industry; uncertainties concerning the availability and cost of commodity materials and specialized product components; actions by competitors; unexpected advances in competing technologies; uncertainties related to the development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; business conditions and growth in the various hard drive markets; pricing trends and fluctuations in average selling prices; and other risks and uncertainties listed in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the company’s recent Form 10-Q filed with the SEC on May 3, 2013, to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speaks only as of the date hereof, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

Financial Statements 

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2013 Quarterly Fact Sheet 

¹ Non-GAAP net income for fiscal 2013 consists of GAAP net income of US$1.7 billion plus US$193 million for amortization of intangibles related to the acquisition of HGST, US$138 million for employee termination benefits and other charges and a net US$106 million for tax-related matters and other unrelated charges. Non-GAAP earnings per share of US$8.53 for fiscal 2013 is calculated by using the same 246 million diluted shares as is used for GAAP earnings per share. Non-GAAP net income for fiscal 2012 consists of GAAP net income of US$1.6 billion plus US$214 million of charges and expenses related to the flooding net of recoveries, US$91 million for costs recognized upon the sale of acquired inventory that was written-up to fair value, US$80 million related to restructuring, US$63 million for amortization of intangibles related to the acquisition of HGST, US$62 million of acquisition-related expenses, US$7 million of litigation accruals, less US$20 million of tax effects related to the aforementioned items. Non-GAAP earnings per share of US$8.61 for fiscal 2012 is calculated by using the same 245 million diluted shares as is used for GAAP earnings per share.

 

² Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter fiscal 2013 consists of GAAP net income of US$416 million plus US$46 million for amortization of intangibles related to the acquisition of HGST and US$15 million for employee termination benefits and other unrelated charges. Non-GAAP earnings per share of US$1.96 for the fourth quarter is calculated by using the same 243 million diluted shares as is used for GAAP earnings per share.

³ Non-GAAP net income for the fourth quarter fiscal 2012 consists of GAAP net income of US$745 million plus US$51 million for amortization of intangibles related to the acquisition of HGST, US$80 million related to restructuring less a US$4 million tax effect related to the restructuring. Non-GAAP earnings per share of US$3.35 for the fourth quarter is calculated by using the same 260 million diluted shares as is used for GAAP earnings per share.

⁴ Free cash flow for fiscal 2013 consists of cash flows from operations of US$3.1 billion less US$952 million of capital expenditures.

Western Digital, WD and the WD logo are registered trademarks in the U.S. and other countries. HGST trademarks are intended and authorized for use only in countries and jurisdictions in which HGST has obtained the rights to use, market and advertise the brand. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies.

WD® Designs First Enterprise-Class Hard Drives for Exploding Scale-Out DataCenter Market

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Cost-Effective, High Capacity, Low Power Drive Validated in WD’s Real-World Hadoop® Environment; also Ideal for SMB and Mid-Sized NAS Deployments

WD®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and world leader for storage deployed in datacenters, today announced availability of its innovative WD Se™ line of hard drives, the first designed for scale-out datacenter deployments. Built on an enterprise-grade platform for reliable 24x7x365 datacenter operation, WD Se is tailored to deliver the right combination of performance, reliability and robustness for large-scale replicated environments, mid-sized network attached storage (NAS) deployment, and backup/archiving applications. 

WD Se is a true enterprise-class drive with the right blend of affordability and capabilities to address the massive growth of semi-structured data, which is accelerating the scale-out of datacenters of all sizes. Now shipping in capacities up to 4 TB, the new WD Se hard drives enables customers to balance their data growth challenges in multi-drive enclosures without compromising enterprise-class features.

“Today’s cloud datacenter installations require a cost-effective way to build large-scale storage systems, while maintaining the 24x7 reliability necessary to minimize total cost of ownership,” said Richard E. Rutledge, senior vice president of WD’s datacenter storage business unit. “WD’s utilization of vast amounts of manufacturing and engineering data has forced us – like many other companies – to use map-reduce methodologies to effectively analyze our data. The WD Se hard drives are used in our own big datacenter, where we have gained real-world experience with Apache™ Hadoop®.”

WD Se drives also address the fast-growing SMB to mid-range network-attached storage (NAS) market. The robust enterprise-class design and higher workload capabilities for SMB-focused 6-bay-plus table-top NAS units and rack-mount multi-tenant NAS solutions with up to 24 bays, provide NAS integrators a complement to WD Red™ hard drives, which are for small NAS systems. WD’s other datacenter hard drives – WD Xe™ and WD Re™ – round out the high-end of the NAS market, offering higher durability and performance for large-scale rack-based NAS systems. Together, WD Se, WD Xe, WD Re and WD Red™ provide a total portfolio of robust storage devices to match every size and scale of NAS deployment. 

In addition to undergoing at least 5,000,000 hours of functional and thermal testing and over 20,000,000 hours of additional testing under actual workloads in server and storage systems, WD’s Se hard drives feature: 

A dual processor for twice the processing power to maximize performance; 

Enhanced Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF™) technology that includes sophisticated electronics to monitor the drive and correct both linear and rotational vibration in real time; 

Dual actuator technology improves head positional accuracy over the data track(s); 

StableTrac™ whereby the motor shaft is secured at both ends to reduce system-induced vibration and stabilize platters for accurate tracking during read and write operations delivering a consistent level of performance for applications; 

Multi-axis shock sensor automatically detects the subtlest shock events and compensates to protect the data; 

RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER) prevents drive fallout caused by the extended hard drive error-recovery processes common to desktop drives, and; 

Dynamic fly height technology where each read-write head’s fly height is adjusted in real time for optimum reliability. 

Price and Availability

WD’s Se hard drives, shipping in capacities from 2 TB to 4 TB, (models: WD2000F9YZ, WD3000F9YZ, and WD4000F9YZ) are available through select distributors and resellers. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD Se hard drives range from PHP 7990 to PHP 14, 990. WD’s Se drives are covered by a five-year limited warranty. More information about WD’s Se enterprise hard drives may be found on the company's website at http://www.wd.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1050.

About WD

WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the company produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and integrators in desktop and mobile computers, enterprise computing systems, embedded systems and consumer electronics applications, as well as by the company in providing its own storage products. WD’s leading storage devices and systems, networking products, media players and software solutions empower people around the world to easily save, store, protect, share and experience their content on multiple devices. WD was established in 1970 and is headquartered in Irvine, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.wd.com.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is a global provider of products and services that empower people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. Its companies design and manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home entertainment products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands. Visit the Investor section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

Western Digital Green Desktop 3.5-inch Hard Drives Wins Best Choice Awards

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Cool and Quiet Drives Awarded for Their Innovative Energy-saving Technologies, Wide Market Acceptance and High Capacity to Meet Today’s Data Growth

WD®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and world leader in storage and connected-life products, today announced that its WD Green™ desktop 3.5-inch hard drives have been awarded the COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013 Best Choice Award in the Green ICT category. 

The Best Choice Award is a technology-industry recognition of distinctive products, judged on functionality, innovation and market potential. This year the judging panel, comprised of government officials, professors, experts and journalists, received more than 400 entries.

Employing the company’s WD GreenPower Technology™, WD Green hard drives were the industry’s first drives to significantly reduce power consumption when compared to standard hard drives, and have been widely accepted globally, with more than 125 million units shipped since their introduction in 2008. In addition to consuming less power, the purpose-built drives’ power-saving technologies result in cooler and quieter operation. Available in capacities up to 3 TB, the WD Green family is designed and manufactured with lead-free, conflict-free and halogen-free materials.

“We are honored by the recognition COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013 is giving the WD Green drives,” said Matt Rutledge, vice president of WD’s client computing business unit.

"Our customers have embraced WD Green drives for their efficiencies and cool and quiet attributes, which are a primary criteria for certain applications. From working closely with our customers, we understand their needs for purpose-built storage technologies, whether they deliver high performance or network capability, or low power consumption, like WD Green drives." 

WD Green desktop hard drives will be exhibited at the Best Choice Award display area at COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013. WD will showcase its full product portfolio, latest storage technologies and software solutions addressing thin-and-light mobile devices, cloud datacenter computing and products for the connected lifestyle at booth number L0810 in the World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall.

WD® Participates in Computex Taipe 2013

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WD® will demonstrate solid state bybrid drive and 5 MM technologies in tablet, thin and light devices at Computex TAIPEI 2013. (SSHD Among Thin-and-light, Cloud Storage and Connected Life Portfolio Exhibited)

WD®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) company and world leader in storage and connected-life products, today announced that it will demonstrate its solid state hybrid drives (SSHD) and 5 mm ultra-slim hard drive technologies in tablet and other thin-and-light devices at the COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2013 trade event, held in Taiwan from June 4 to June 8, 2013. The innovations will be a part of WD’s exhibit showcasing its latest storage technologies and solutions addressing thin-and-light mobile devices, cloud datacenter computing and the connected lifestyle.

At Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall, booth number L0810, WD will demonstrate: 

- The world’s first ultra-slim 2.5-inch, 5 mm hard drives and SSHDs, which are designed for integration into the slimmest devices and space-constrained computing environments; 

- 7 mm form factor drive designs for high-capacity mobile storage; 

- Enterprise storage building blocks for the cloud-oriented datacenter, aligning to application performance, capacity, reliability and workload; 

- Connected Life Products, revolving around personal cloud storage and software, enabling personal and premium content on multiple screens; and 

- WD’s “Power of Choice” client hard drive solutions.

The four colors – WD Blue™, WD Green™, WD Black™ and WD Red™ – enable customers’ easy selection of the best WD drive for their application or usage requirements. 

About WD

WD, a Western Digital company, is a long-time innovator and storage industry leader. As a storage technology pacesetter, the company produces reliable, high-performance hard disk drives and solid state drives. These drives are deployed by OEMs and integrators in desktop and mobile computers, enterprise computing systems, embedded systems and consumer electronics applications, as well as by the company in providing its own storage products. WD’s leading storage devices and systems, networking products, media players and software solutions empower people around the world to easily save, store, protect, share and experience their content on multiple devices. WD was established in 1970 and is headquartered in Irvine, California. For more information, please visit the company’s website at www.wd.com.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), Irvine, Calif., is a global provider of products and services that empower people to create, manage, experience and preserve digital content. Its companies design and manufacture storage devices, networking equipment and home entertainment products under the WD, HGST and G-Technology brands. Visit the Investor section of the company's website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

Western Digital, WD, and the WD logo are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries; WD Blue, WD Green, WD Black, WD Red are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies.