HUTCHINSON TECHNOLOGY INC.
Business: Maker of suspension assemblies for computer disk drives. Also makes biomeasurement devices.
In the news: Jeffrey Green, co-founder and chairman since 1983, will retire in October; Wayne Fortun, CEO since 1996, assumes the chairman post, and veteran Hutchinson executive Richard Penn becomes CEO.
Challenges: Hutchinson has been struggling for more than three years as a result of a downturn in its business that began with the global recession in 2008. In 2011, massive flooding in Thailand disrupted a large portion of its manufacturing capacity there and also interrupted disk-drive makers that are the company's customers.
Employment: In 2006, Hutchinson had more than 5,430 employees. The company has endured repeated large job cuts since and currently has about 2,000 employees.
Revenue: Sales peaked in 2006 at $721.5 million and have decreased annually since then with sales in fiscal 2011 of $278 million.
Earnings: In the third quarter, the company reported a loss of $13.9 million, or 59 cents a share, on revenue of $61 million. In fiscal 2011, the company lost $55 million. Its last profitable year was 2007, when it posted net income of $7.3 million.
PATRICK KENNEDY
