Applied Magnetics Merges with DAS Devices

Applied Magnetics Corp. announced that it has completed its previously announced merger with DAS Devices Inc. Concurrent with the closing, a private placement was also completed with certain institutional investors, which will net the company $20 million in new working capital.

The newly merged company will operate under the Applied Magnetics name with Wafer and Advanced Product Development centered in the Milpitas, CA facility. Manufacturing will continue to reside in the companies' facilities located in Goleta, and offshore in Malaysia, Korea, and China. The combined company's headquarters will continue to be in Goleta.

The completion of the merger has resulted in the creation of a new company combining leading-edge GMR-based wafer technology with an extensive worldwide manufacturing infrastructure and customer support network to satisfy the demand for GMR recording heads, the fastest-growing segment of the recording head market. The company currently has GMR product under evaluation at several US, Japanese, and Korean hard disk drive manufacturers at aerial densities up to 8.2 gigabits per square inch.

"We are very excited to have completed the merger of Applied Magnetics Corporation and DAS Devices Inc. and are already experiencing near-term as well as long-term benefits by leveraging the strengths of the two companies," said Craig Crisman, chairman and CEO of Applied Magnetics.

Applied Magnetics is an independent manufacturer of magnetic recording heads, head-gimbal assemblies ("HGAs") and headstack assemblies ("HSAs") for computer hard disk drives. Founded in 1957, Applied Magnetics is the oldest independent US-based supplier of disk heads to the merchant market.