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JT Storage

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JTS Corporation
Company typePrivate
IndustryElectronics
PredecessorKalok Corporation
FoundedFebruary 3, 1994;30 years ago(1994-02-03)
Founders
DefunctJanuary 28, 1999;25 years ago(1999-01-28)
FateLiquidationDue ToBankruptcy
Headquarters
San Jose,California
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • David "Tom" Mitchell (CEO, 1995–1999)
  • Jack Tramiel(Director, 1996–1998)
ProductsHard Drives
BrandsAtari (brand)

JTS Corporationwas a maker of inexpensiveIDEhard drivesforpersonal computersbased inSan Jose, California.It was founded in 1994 by"Jugi" Tandon—the inventor of the double-sidedfloppy disk driveand founder ofTandon Corporation—and David B. Pearce, of former bankrupt disk manufacturer Kalok.[1]Its name is derived from its co-founder, standing forJugi Tandon Storage.

The company laterreverse-mergedwithJack Tramiel'sAtari Corporationin 1996,[2]sold all Atari assets toHasbro Interactivein 1998[3]and was finally declared bankrupt in 1999.

History

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It was founded under the legal name JT Storage, Inc., but traded as JTS Corp.[1]A few months after its foundation, Pearce departed the company, with Tandon filling his role as president. Then in June 1995, Tom Mitchell, a co-founder ofSeagateand former president and Chief Operating Officer of both Seagate andConner Peripherals,was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of JTS.[1]

First products

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JTS initially focused on a new 3 "form-factor drive forlaptops.The 3 "form factor allowed a larger drive capacity for laptops with the existing technology.Compaqwas actively engaged in qualifying these drives and built several laptops with this form factor drive. Lack of a second source was a major obstacle for this new form factor to gain a foothold; JTS licensed the form factor toWestern Digitalto attempt to remedy this problem. Eventually, as 2.5 "drives became cheaper to build, interest in the 3" form factor waned, and JTS and WD stopped the project in 1998.[citation needed]

JTS by then had become a source of cheap, medium-performance 3.5 "drives with 5400 RPM spindles. The drives, produced in a factory inIndia(the factory was in the Madras Export Processing Zone in the suburbs of the Southern Indian city of Madras, now known asChennai), were known for poor reliability. Failure rates were very high and quality control was inconsistent: good drives were very good, still running after 5 years, whereas bad drives almost always failed within a few weeks. Because of their low-tier reputation, JTS drives were rare in brand-name PCs and most frequently turned up in home-built and whitebox PCs. Product lines included Palladium and Champion internal IDE hard drives.

The basic design of their drives was done by Kalok forTEACin the early 1990s.[4][5]TEAC used the design as part of a removable HDD system,[6]which was also sold under the Kalok name. After Kalok failed in 1994, JTS hired its founder as their chief technical officer, and licensed the patents involved from TEAC and Pont Peripherals.[7]

Merger with Atari Corporation

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On February 13, 1996, JTS announced areverse mergerwith formervideo gameandhome computermanufacturer,Atari Corporation.[8]It was primarily a marriage of convenience; JTS had products but little cashflow, while Atari had money, primarily from a series of successful lawsuits earlier in the decade followed by good investments. However, with the failure of itsJaguar game console,losses mounting, and no other products to sell, Atari expected to run out of money within two years. Originally it was planned that the storage company and Atari would be two separate divisions under JTS, but in April the merger was amended so that Atari would merge into JTS, with JTS being the surviving entity.[1]Atari'sJack Tramielwould take a place on JTS's board of directors.[1]

Within a few months of the merger becoming official on July 30,[2]all former Atari employees were either dismissed or relocated to JTS's headquarters.[9]Atari's remaining inventory of Jaguar products proved difficult to get rid of, even atliquidationprices, and the bulk of them remained in stock months after the merger[9]until finally being moved out to a private liquidator on December 23, 1996.Next Generation Onlinereported that JTS did not honor the Atari side of the business despite owning all these assets: no video game software was developed during this time,[10]although licensing to third-parties did result in a handful of releases:THQ'sSuper Breakout / Battlezoneon Game Boy,Midway'sArcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1,Activision'sBattlezoneon PC, and a number of Jaguar games byTelegames.[1]

Demise

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The company secured $25 million in finances in September 1997.[11]But even with the cash infusion from Atari and the investments, JTS quickly ran out of money. On March 13, 1998, JTS sold theAtariname and assets toHasbro Interactivefor $5 million,[3]less than a fifth of whatWarner Communicationshad paid theoriginal Atari company22 years earlier. On two occasions in April, JTS staff werelaid offincluding some former long-time Atari individuals, and the company was soon forced out ofAMEX.[12]Later that year, on December 11, JTS filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy protection,[12]with a reported $4.2 million assets and $136 million ofliabilities.[1]However, on January 28, 1999, the company was closed down for good when its filing was ultimately converted intoinvoluntary Chapter 7 liquidationby the bankruptcy courts.[13]Its president and CEO, Tom Mitchell, returned to the disk storage industry the following year when he founded Fabrinet.[14]

References

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  1. ^abcdefg"A History of JT Storage / JTS".mcurrent.name.Retrieved2024-09-12.
  2. ^ab"Video Game Timeline".Electronic Gaming Monthly.No. 102.Ziff Davis.January 1998. p. 137.
  3. ^ab"Atari goes to Hasbro".GameSpot. April 28, 2000.
  4. ^ US patent 5446609,"Low profile disk drive assembly", issued 1995-08-29, assigned to TEAC Corporation and Pont Peripherals Corporation
  5. ^US patent 5886850,"High capacity, low profile disk drive system", issued 1999-03-23, assigned to TEAC Corporation and DZU Corporation
  6. ^"SD3250N, SD3360N, SD3540N (Removable Hard Disk Drives) - Installation guides and CMOS Setup parameters"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2006-11-11.
  7. ^"Form S-4: Registration under the Securities Act of 1933: JTS Corporation".1996-06-22.Retrieved2008-01-25.
  8. ^"The Life and Death of Atari".GamePro.No. 92.IDG.May 1996. p. 20.
  9. ^abThomas, Don (December 1996). "Atari's Historic Road to Nowhere".Next Generation.No. 24.Imagine Media.pp. 97–104.
  10. ^"Hasbro to Buy Atari from JTS".atarimax.Retrieved2024-09-12.
  11. ^"JTS Corp. Press Release".1998-01-27. Archived fromthe originalon 1998-01-27.Retrieved2024-09-12.
  12. ^abThomas, Jr., Donald A. (2006-03-12)."-1998-".ICWhen.Archived fromthe originalon 2006-03-12.Retrieved2024-09-12.
  13. ^Thomas, Jr., Donald A. (2006-03-12)."-1999-".ICWhen.Archived fromthe originalon 2006-03-12.Retrieved2024-09-12.
  14. ^Maleval, Jean Jacques (2022-11-06)."History 2000: Return of Tom Mitchell to Storage Industry".StorageNewsletter.Retrieved2024-09-12.
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