1994
February 3:
Sirjang Lal Tandon
(Jugi Tandon) with
David B. Pearce
founded JT Storage, Inc., which would continue the
engineering and development programs of the bankrupt hard disk drive (HDD)
manufacturer, Kalok Corporation. Certain engineers associated with Kalok's development programs would
join JT Storage, and would be equity holders of JT Storage, Inc.
Tandon would be JT Storage Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO. Prior to co-founding JT Storage, Tandon founded and was CEO of Tandon Corporation, a personal computer manufacturing firm. Tandon Corporation filed a petition under the Federal bankruptcy laws in 1993.
Pearce would be JT Storage president. Prior to co-founding JT Storage, Pearce was president and CEO of Kalok Corporation.
JT Storage address: 1289 Anvilwood Avenue, Sunnyvale CA (previously: location of Kalok Corporation)
February 4: As part of a settlement in United States Bankruptcy Court, JT Storage acquired certain assets and assumed certain liabilities of Kalok Corporation ("Kalok") in exchange for a note payable to the Kalok Bankruptcy estate ($225,000) and a warrant to Kalok's unsecured creditors (Note 7). In connection with the settlement agreement, JT Storage acquired certain proprietary disk drive technology from TEAC Corporation ("TEAC") in exchange for 482,850 shares of common stock, which represented 10% of the outstanding Common Stock of JT Storage.
The "TEAC Agreement" licensed technology to be employed in JT Storage Nordic disk drives to JT Storage by TEAC, including a cross-license with respect to Nordic technology developed jointly by TEAC and JT Storage, which would be owned jointly by the two companies, and granting certain rights to TEAC with respect to Nordic technology developed independently by JT Storage, which would be owned solely by JT Storage. (1996 proxy)
February: Steven L. Kaczeus joined JT Storage as Chief Technical Officer. Prior to joining JT Storage, he founded Kalok Corporation in 1987 and served in various technical and management positions, most recently as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Technical Officer. Before Kalok, Kaczeus had been at Seagate Technology.
May 23: JT Storage president David Pearce co-founded and would serve as president of Velocidata, Inc., a subsidiary of Exclusive Design Company.
June 16: Date of Development Agreement between JT Storage and Compaq Computer Corporation. Compaq was to pay JT Storage for the development of two "Nordic" hard disk drives (HDDs): a three-inch (3"), single disk, seven millimeter (7 mm) high RDS (Nordic 1) and a three-inch (3"), dual disk, ten millimeter (10 mm) high HDD (Nordic 2).
June 24: JT Storage, Inc. notified the State of California of its principal office location: 1289 Anvilwood Avenue, Sunnyvale CA, and that it would do business in the state as: "JTS Corporation". David B. Pearce remained president of the company.
Summer/Fall?: JT Storage chairman and CEO Jugi Tandon additionally became JT Storage president, replacing David Pearce who departed the company (to focus on Velocidata where he was president).
Summer/Fall: Tom Mahar, previously president of Sunward Technologies (and Seagate Technology prior to that), joined JT Storage as VP operations. (source)
Summer/Fall: Jonas Milazius joined JT Storage as head of production (prototype production). (source)
September: Moduler Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd. (incorporated March 24, 1986) received Indian government approval to manufacture hard disk drives (on an average, 286,000 drives annually). The company also maintained a Voice Coil Magnetic Assembly ("VCMA") business, but would discontinue its Switch Mode Power Supplies ("SMPS") business. The Company was owned principally by Asperal Holdings, Inc. and Dexar Holdings, Inc., which had a 45% equity stake each. The remaining 10% of the Company's outstanding equity shares were owned by the Chairman of the Company, "Manny" Manohar Lal Tandon, and his relatives. (1996 proxy)
December: Moduler Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd. discontinued production of hard disk drive subassemblies such as Head Gimbe Assemblies ("HGA") and Head Stack Assemblies ("HSA") for customers other than JT Storage, Inc. (or subcontract agreements with JT Storage), with which it began collaborations to manufacture hard disk drives. (1996 proxy)
1995
January: JT Storage and
Pont entered into a cross-licensing agreement (the "Pont Agreement")
pursuant to which JT Storage granted to Pont a royalty-free, nonexclusive,
perpetual license to use certain JT Storage and jointly-developed hard disk drive
technology, to make developments to such technology and to manufacture and
sell in certain territories hard disk drives incorporating such technology.
In return, Pont granted to JT Storage a royalty-free, nonexclusive,
perpetual license to use certain Pont and jointly-developed hard disk drive
technology, to make developments to such technology and to manufacture and
sell in certain territories hard disk drives incorporating such technology.
(1996 proxy)
January 28: JT Storage had delivered a working prototype and accordingly, recognized income of $5,275,000 (from Compaq?) in connection with achieving specified milestones. The remaining income of $1,125,000 would be recognized as future milestones would be achieved. (1996 proxy)
Winter?: JT Storage hired Dr. Harpal S. Gill, previously of Seagate Technology, to be responsible for product design. (source)
February 3: JT Storage agreed to issue 1,000,000 shares of Redeemable Series A preferred stock to TEAC in exchange for the return of the 482,850 shares of common stock (issued February 4, 1994) and the cancellation of a shareholder agreement with TEAC. (1996 proxy)
February 3: JT Storage issued 2,202,227 shares of JT Storage Series A Preferred Stock to Tantec in exchange for the cancellation of $2,202,227 of indebtedness owed by JT Storage to Tantec. (source)
February: JT Storage sold an aggregate of 16,200,000 shares of JT Storage Series A Preferred Stock ("First Series A Financing") for a purchase price of $1.00 per share in exchange for cash and cancellation of indebtedness originating from several 1994 bridge loans from certain significant JT Storage stockholders aggregating approximately $2.9 million ("First Financing Notes"), plus interest. (source)
February: The JT Storage Board of Directors approved a 4,350-for-1 common stock split. (1996 proxy)
February: JT Storage
entered into a Technology Transfer and License Agreement with Western
Digital. Under the terms of the agreement,
Western Digital obtained
manufacturing and marketing rights to JT Storage's 3-inch hard disk drive
products. In return, Western Digital would pay JT Storage up to $6.0
million and was licensed to act as a second source of Nordic drives to
Compaq. Western Digital also made a $4.1 million equity investment in JT Storage
as part of the transaction. (1996 proxy)
March: JT Storage agreed to acquire the hard disk drive division of Moduler Electronics for 1,911,673 shares of JT Storage Series A Preferred Stock and a warrant to purchase 500,000 shares of JT Storage Common Stock at an exercise price of $ .25 per share. (1996 proxy)
Winter/Spring: Lip-Bu Tan, with the Walden Group venture capital firm since 1984, and founder and chairman of Walden International since 1987, became a director of JT Storage.
May: Jugi Tandon, previously JT Storage Chairman, CEO and president, became JT Storage Chairman and Corporate Technical Strategist. David T. (Tom) Mitchell joined JT Storage as CEO (replacing Tandon in the role) and a director. Mitchell had been President, COO and a director of Conner Peripherals, Inc. from 1992-1995, and had been co-founder of Seagate Technology (as Shugart Technology) in 1979, where he had been President, COO and a director from 1983-1991.
June 7: "JTS Corporation" (JT Storage, Inc.) announced the appointment of David T. Mitchell to the post of CEO and Member of the Company's Board of Directors.
June: Amit Chokshi joined JT Storage as VP, Worldwide Operations and Managing Director of India Operations, replacing Tom Mahar who departed the company. Prior to joining JT Storage, Chokshi co-founded Dastek Corporation, a hard disk drive manufacturing company, where he served as Vice President of Marketing/Sales and Operations until December 1994.
June: Matthew Ackerman, previously of Conner Peripherals, joined JT Storage as corporate controller.
June: JT Storage received bridge loans aggregating approximately $2.75 million from certain significant JT Storage stockholders, evidenced by secured convertible notes (the "Second Financing Notes"). (source)
Month?: Jean D. Deleage, managing partner of venture capital firm Burr, Egan, Deleage & Co. since its formation in 1979, became a director of JT Storage.
Month?: Alain L. Azan, founding partner of Sofinnova Ventures, became a director of JT Storage.
July: Kenneth D. Wing, previously of Seagate, joined JT Storage as EVP Research & Development Quality/Reliability (replacing Jonas Milazius who departed the company?).
July 18: JT Storage established JT Storage International, Inc. Incorporator: Lawrence C. Weeks
August 15: IMP Inc. announced that "JTS Corp." had selected the IMP62C548 single-chip, mixed-signal, read-channel integrated circuit (IC) from IMP as a key component of the Nordic 3.0" hard-disk drive. Steven Kaczeus was CTO of "JTS"; David Tom Mitchell was "JTS" CEO.
August: JT Storage sold an aggregate of 12,496,370 shares of JT Storage Series A Preferred Stock ("Second Series A Financing") for a purchase price of $1.00 per share in exchange for cash and cancellation of indebtedness originating with the $2.75 million in bridge loans of June 1995. (source)
September: JT Storage introduced their first commercial product line, the JTS Palladium family of 3.5" hard disk drives, targeted at the desktop personal computer market. (source)
October: JT Storage shipped their first product (commercial quantities), the JTS Palladium family of 3.5" hard disk drives (540MB, 850MB, or 1GB). (source) N0640-2AR (640MB) Nordic drives began first production shipments (sample quantities to Compaq) as well. (source) All JTS products would be manufactured in India by Moduler Electronics.
October: Moduler Electronics discontinued selling subassemblies and other components to Xyratex in Havant, United Kingdom for the manufacture of hard disk drives under a subcontract manufacturing agreement between Xyratex and JT Storage. (1996 proxy)
November 7: JT Storage, Inc. established the subsidiary, JTS Corporation (incorporated in California). Incorporator: Lawrence C. Weeks. Address: c/o JT Storage, Inc., 166 Baypointe Parkway, San Jose CA (The intended purpose of this new corporate entity is a mystery, but it appears that it was never utilitized.)
November: W. Virginia Walker joined JT Storage as EVP Finance and Administration, CFO, and secretary.
November: Moduler Electronics obtained a revised approval to manufacture, on an average, 807,000 hard disk drives and 418,000 subassemblies (i.e., HGAs and HSAs) annually. (1996 proxy)
November 16: In the initial meeting between the two companies, Sam Tramiel, president and CEO of Atari Corporation, and Sirjang L. "Jugi" Tandon, the Chairman of JT Storage, Inc., met at the Las Vegas airport following the Comdex show. A follow-up meeting was scheduled for early December to further discuss a possible investment in JT Storage by Atari. (1996 proxy)
December 4: Tom Mitchell was JT Storage president and CEO (having replaced David Pearce as president).
December 14: Jack Tramiel and Sam Tramiel of Atari met with Jugi Tandon and T. David Mitchell at JT Storage. At this meeting, the parties discussed a potential investment by Atari in JT Storage and the possibility that Jack Tramiel would become a director of JT Storage. (1996 proxy)
December 15: JT Storage International, Inc. executed a change of name of the company to: JTS International, Inc. David T. Mitchell was president; Matthew John Ackerman was secretary.
December: JT Storage established a line of credit with a bank for $5 million.
December 29: The name of JT Storage International, Inc. was registered changed to JTS International, Inc., as executed on December 15, 1995.
1996
January 8: Jack Tramiel,
Sam Tramiel and T. David Mitchell met at Jack Tramiel's home to further
discuss strategic transaction between Atari and JT Storage. (1996 proxy)
January 17: Meeting was held at JT Storage to discuss the proposed transaction between Atari and JT Storage. Present at the meeting were Jack Tramiel, Sam Tramiel and Mr. Liguori of Atari and Mr. Tandon, Mr. Mitchell and Ms. Walker of JT Storage. Also present were representatives from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C., counsel to Atari, and a representative of Cooley Godward, counsel to JT Storage. There was substantial discussion regarding a proposed merger of Atari and JT Storage. (1996 proxy)
January 28: The Moduler Electronics Voice Coil Magnetic Assembly ("VCMA") business was transferred to Tancom Electronics, leaving the Hard Disk Drive Division as the only remaining business of the company, and JT Storage, Inc. as its only customer. (1996 proxy)
January 28: JT Storage employed 137 individuals in engineering support and research and development. (1996 proxy)
February 1: From October 1995 through January 1996, JT Storage had shipped 98,000 JTS Palladium 3.5" hard disk drives in 540 megabyte, 850 megabyte and 1 gigabyte configurations primarily to customers in the United States and Europe. (1996 proxy)
February 5: JT Storage, Inc. established JTS Acquisition Corporation for the purpose of merging with Atari Corporation. (The two companies would proceed to merge, but this new corporate entity would not be used after all.)
February 12: Date of Agreement and Plan of Reorganization by and among JTS, Atari and JTS Acquisition Corporation. (This original Merger Agreement version would be replaced by the Amended and Restated Agreement and Plan of Reorganization of April 8, 1996.)
February 13: Atari Corporation loaned $25.0 million to JT Storage, Inc.
February 13: Atari Corporation and "JTS Corporation" (JT Storage, Inc.) announced they had agreed to merge the two companies. The new corporation would operate under the name of JTS Corporation and the officers of JT Storage would become the officers of the merged company. The Atari entertainment business and the JTS disk drive business would operate as separate divisions of the new merged company. As a result of the transaction, Atari stockholders would hold approximately 60% of the outstanding shares of the new company following the merger. The transaction was structured to qualify as a tax-free reorganization and would be accounted for as a purchase.
February: JT Storage amended its certificate of incorporation and authorized 90,000,000 and 70,000,000 shares of common and Redeemable Series A Preferred Stock, respectively. (1996 proxy)
February: Frank Sammann, previously of Conner Peripherals, joined JT Storage as VP of corporate accounts.
March: David Pearce's employment with JT Storage terminated. (1996 proxy)
March: Laurence M. Scott, Jr. (Laury Scott), previously Atari VP Manufacturing and Operations, joined JT Storage as VP materials.
April 4: JT Storage acquired 90% of the outstanding stock of the Hard Disk Drive Division (the only remaining division) of Moduler Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd., located in Madras, India, in exchange for issuing 1,911,673 shares of JT Storage Series A Preferred Stock and a warrant to purchase 750,000 shares of JT Storage Common Stock at an exercise price of $0.25 per share to Lunenberg S.A., an affiliate of Sirjang L. Tandon. The name of Moduler Electronics (India) Pvt. Ltd. would be renamed to: JTS Technology Private Limited. (1996 proxy)
April 4: $19.7 million of the $25 million Atari loan had been expended by JT Storage. (1996 proxy)
April 8: Date of Amended and Restated Agreement and Plan of Reorganization By and Between Atari Corporation and JT Storage, Inc. This revised (and final) Merger Agreement modified the legal structure of the merger agreement of February 12, 1996 into a merger of Atari with and into JT Storage, with JT Storage as the surviving company (to be renamed: JTS Corporation). This change in the legal structure of the merger did not materially modify the economic terms of the merger.
April: Roger W. Johnson became a director of JT Storage. Johnson was Administrator of the United States General Services Administration from July 1993 to March 1996. From 1984 to 1993, Johnson served as Chairman CEO of Western Digital.
April 26: JT Storage had 1,936 full-time employees, of whom 158 were located in San Jose, California, 1,760 were located in Madras, India, 13 were located in Singapore and five were located in Taipei, Taiwan. Of the full-time employees, 1,490 were engaged in manufacturing, 12 in marketing, sales and service, 108 in product development and 18 in administration and finance. (1996 proxy)
Spring: JT Storage dba JTS shipped the N0640-2AR (640MB) and N0840-2AR (840MB) Nordic disk drives to Compaq under their volume purchase agreement. (1996 proxy)
June: The amount of the February 13, 1996 loan from Atari Corporation to JT Storage, Inc. was increased from $25 million to $30 million. (1996 proxy)
June: Amit Chokshi, previously JTS VP, Worldwide Operations and Managing Director of India Operations, became JT Storage Executive Vice President, Worldwide Materials. Laury Scott, previously JTS VP materials, became JTS VP worldwide materials. Harpal Gill, previously responsible for product design, became managing director, JTS Technology Ltd. in Inda (replacing Chokshi in the role). Ken Wing, previously JTS EVP Research & Development Quality/Reliability, became JTS EVP, Engineering and COO (replacing Gill as head of drive design).
June 17: Certificate of Amendment of Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of JT Storage, Inc. was executed, changing the name of the company to: JTS Corporation (source - bottom of page)
June 18: There were 20 holders of record of JTS Common Stock and 54 holders of record of JTS Series A Preferred Stock and 9,263,866 shares of JTS Common Stock and 29,696,370 shares of JTS Series A Preferred Stock were issued and outstanding. (1996 proxy)
June 19: The name of JT Storage, Inc. was changed to: JTS Corporation
July: Rick R. Brantmeyer, previously of Maxtor, joined JTS as EVP, Sales and Marketing.
July: JTS repaid an aggregate of approximately $2.0 million in bridge loans evidenced by promissory notes (the "Bridge Notes") obtained from certain significant stockholders of JTS from January 1996 to April 1996.
July 16: Headway Technologies Inc. and JTS Corporation announced an agreement whereby Headway would become the exclusive supplier of Dual Stripe Magneto-Resistive (DSMR) data recording heads for JTS' new line of 3-, 3.5-, and 5.25-inch disk drives.
July 17: In India, the name of the city of Madras, location of the JTS Technology Ltd. manufacturing facility, was changed to: Chennai
July 30: JTS Special Meeting held at JTS's offices at 166 Baypointe Parkway, San Jose, California 95134, at 9:00 a.m.
Atari Corporation was merged with and into JTS Corporation. Approximately 63,850,000 shares of JTS Common Stock were issued to the former shareholders of Atari for all of the outstanding stock of Atari (1:1 ratio); JTS had 103,415,517 shares outstanding following the merger. Financially, the merger was calculated as the acquisition of JTS by Atari for about $112.3 million. (8,600,000 of the new shares of JTS common stock issued to former Atari shareholders were issued to Time Warner Inc.)
Through the merger, JTS had acquired the assets of Atari Corporation, which consisted of $15 million in cash, $55 million attributable to intellectual property, and eight real properties located in Calfornia and Texas with a book value of $10 million. JTS also assumed liability for a pending bankruptcy petition against the former Atari subsidiary, The Federated Group, Inc.
The Atari Division of JTS held leases for 455 S Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale CA (7,200 ft2), a 20,200 ft2 warehouse facility at 691 Walsh Ave Santa Clara CA, and, through subsidiary Atari Corp. (U.K.) Limited, the lease for an international sales facility at Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, Berkshire, England (33,600 ft2).
The prior business of Atari would now be conducted through the Atari Division of JTS; however "the Atari Division was not expected to represent a significant portion of JTS business," JTS said. "We are pleased to be a part of JTS Corporation, the disk drive market is growing rapidly and we continue to be excited about the prospects of the 3-inch Nordic disk drive," said Jack Tramiel, former Chairman of Atari and now a director of JTS.
The JTS Corporation board of directors would now consist of: Sirjang L. Tandon, David T. Mitchell, Jean D. Deleage, Roger W. Johnson, Lip-Bu Tan, Jack Tramiel.
John Skruch, previously Atari director of Jaguar software development, would be Atari Division director of licensing. Donald A. Thomas, Jr. (Don Thomas) remained Atari Division director of customer service / marketing. At Atari Corp. (U.K.) Limited: Bob Gleadow remained managing director; Richard Munday remained Financial Controller.
July 31: The American Stock Exchange began trading the common shares of JTS Corporation under the ticker symbol: JTS
August 7: JTS Corporation announced a strategic partnership with the leading Apple Macintosh PowerBook accessory company, VST Technologies using new 3-inch drive technology developed by JTS Corporation in their Expansion Bay Hard Drive designs for the Apple 190/5300 PowerBook Computers.
August 15: Atari director of customer service / marketing Don Thomas departed the company to Sony Computer Entertainment. (source; source)
September 10: JTS Corporation sold the eight real properties (locations in Texas and California) recently acquired in the Atari merger to director Jack Tramiel for $10 million.
September 12: Barbara Castillo (sales/customer service), John Skruch (licensing) and David Bajer (accounting), the entire remaining JTS Atari division staff located at 455 S Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale CA, relocated to to the corporate offices of JTS. (source)
September 12: Tom Mitchell, President of JTS hits his company with a 10% layoff and hints at more to come. In an internal company-wide memo, Mitchell blamed the merger with Atari as the cause of the layoffs. (source)
September 25: JTS announced that in the next few weeks they would start volume production of their second generation of 3-inch hard drive products for notebook computers.
September 27: JTS Corporation announced that it had retained an investment banking firm to assist in arranging up to $100 million in private convertible debt financing.
October 7: JTS Corporation announced distribution agreements with South American distributors FutureTech and MarkVision.
October: JTS Corporation sold 15,000 shares of Series B Convertible Preferred Stock to Advantage Fund Ltd. and Genesee Fund Ltd. for $1,000 per share, totalling $15 million. The Series B preferred shares were convertible into shares of JTS common stock at a rate equal to the lower of either $3.6125 per share or a floating conversion price equal to 85% of the average lowest trading price over the five-day period immediately preceding the conversion.
October 29: JTS announced the release of three additions to its Nordic family of 3.0- inch hard drives. The N1080-2AR (1GB), the N1620-3AR (1.6GB) and the N1440-3AR (1.4GB).
October 29: JTS announced distribution agreements with Far East distributors Karma Asia, Alpine Australia, Synnex (Japan and Australia) and TriGem Korea. The agreements called for Far East distribution of JTS' full line of 3.5-inch and 3.0-inch hard disk drive storage products.
October 31?: THQ released Super Breakout / Battlezone, developed by Black Pearl Software, titles licensed from Atari Corporation, for Game Boy.
October 31: The JTS Atari division had approximately 11 employees in the United States, including three in engineering and product development, six in marketing, sales and distribution and two in general administration and management. In addition, the Atari division had six employees outside the United States. (JTS SEC form S-1 11/29/96)
November 4: JTS Corporation announced distribution agreements with European distributors Karma International and Lars Krull. The agreements called for the distribution of JTS' full line of 3.5-inch and 3.0-inch hard disk drive storage products throughout Europe, the Middle East and South Africa.
November 4: JTS Corporation announced the availability of the Champ C2000-3AF 2GB hard disk drive targeted toward the desktop market, as well as a 1.6GB version, the C1600-3AF.
November 5: JTS Corporation announced the completion of a $15 million private financing involving the sale of its Series B Convertible Preferred Stock.
November?: In the US, Interplay released Tempest 2000 by Atari Corporation, conversion by Imagitec Design, for PC CD-ROM (Windows 95 or DOS), with production and distribution for UK/Europe by Dice Multi Media.
November 30: In the US, Interplay released Tempest X3 (NTSC version for North America), title by Atari Corporation, developed by High Voltage Software, for PlayStation.
November: Nina Haralambidis, previously of Supermac, joined JTS as controller, replacing Matthew Ackerman who departed the company.
December 9: JTS Corporation announced distribution agreements with North American distributors Microland, Liuski, Micro Products Center, Peripheral Express and Synnex Information Technologies.
December 9: JTS Corporation announced an addition to its Nordic family of 3.0-inch hard drives, the 2160MB (2GB) N2160-3AR. The new model would join the previously announced models at 1080MB, 1440MB, and 1620MB.
December 10: For the Atari Jaguar, Telegames released Breakout 2000 by Atari Corporation, developed by MP Games. (source)
December: JTS controller Nina Haralambidis departed the company.
December 20: Interplay released Tempest 2000 (NTSC version for North America) by Atari Corporation, conversion by High Voltage Software, for Saturn.
December 20?: Midway Home Entertainment released Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 by Atari Games, developed by Digital Eclipse, for PlayStation, featuring: Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Super Breakout, and Tempest (all properties licensed from Atari Corporation).
December 23: JTS began releasing pallets of Atari Jaguars to a liquidator (Tiger Software) for $20 each piece and software for $1 each piece. Bob Gleadow arranged the transaction from JTS' European office (Atari Corp. (U.K.) Limited). (source)
December 31: The JTS Atari division included 15 persons in the U.S., and had six employees outside the United States.
1997
January 22:
JTS Corporation announced the completion of a $25 million private financing
involving the sales of its Series C Convertible Preferred Stock -- 25,000 shares
sold to Nelson Partners, Olympus Securities, Ltd., RGC International
Investors, LDC and Capital Ventures International. The Series C preferred
shares were convertible into shares of JTS common stock at a rate equal to the
lower of either $3.6125 per share or a floating conversion price equal to 85% of
the average lowest trading price over the five-day period immediately preceding
the conversion.
January 31:
The JTS Atari division had approximately nine employees in the United States,
including three in engineering and product development, two in marketing, sales
and distribution and four in general administration and management.
February 2: The JTS Atari division had approximately six employees in the United States, including four in engineering and product development and two in distribution. The Atari division had moved out of its former headquarters at 455 S Mathilda Ave, Sunnyvale CA, which JTS now subleased. In addition, the Atari division had one employee outside the United States. (JTS SEC filings)
February: Joseph A. Prezioso, previously of IBM, joined JTS as Vice President and Corporate Controller, replacing the departed Nina Haralambidis.
February: Interplay released Tempest X3 (PAL version for UK/Europe), title by Atari Corporation, developed by High Voltage Software, for PlayStation.
February 20: In the involuntary bankruptcy petition by debenture holders Nathaniel Grey, Bernard Heerey, Harlene and Jay Pine, and Lana Grey against The Federated Group, Inc. (former subsidiary of Atari Corporation, current legal subsidiary of JTS Corporation), originally filed January 23, 1992, as dismissed by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California on October 14, 1994, that ruling affirmed upon appeal by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (D.C. No. CV-95-00021-WHO), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the October 14, 1994 decision to dismiss the petition. (source: 107 F.3d 730) As a result, the petition was sent back to the bankruptcy court.
March 5: JTS announced record shipments of their own branded disk drives, increased revenues by 560% to $119.5 million, yet a $150 million loss for the second two quarters of their fiscal 1997 year. About $110 million of that figure was attributed to “in-process research and development” resulting from their merger with Atari Corporation. (source)
March 13: At CeBIT in Hannover Germany, JTS Corporation announced the availability of the Champion family of 3.5-inch Fast ATA-3 hard disk drives with capacities of 3.0GB, 2.5GB, 2.0GB, or 1.7GB. Champion drives would feature the revised company logo:
March: Atari Games released Maximum Force (Showcase 39" or Standard 25" versions) developed by Mesa Logic (incorporating CoJag hardware based on Jaguar by Atari Corporation).
March 20: Interplay released Tempest 2000 (PAL/SECAM version for UK/Europe) by Atari Corporation, conversion by High Voltage Software, for Saturn.
April?: JTS shipped the Champion hard disk drives (replacing the earlier Palladium hard disk drives).
April 28, week of: JTS initiated the first shipment of 3.0-inch Nordic disk drives to a European notebook OEM.
April 29: For the Atari Jaguar CD, Telegames released Iron Solder 2 by Atari Corp., developed by Eclipse Software.
April/May: For the Atari Lynx, Telegames released Raiden by Seibu Kaihatsu via Fabtek, licensed to Atari Corp.
May 4: The JTS Atari division had five employees in the United States, including three in engineering and product development and two in distribution. In addition, the Atari division had six employee outside the United States engaged in sales and finance. (JTS SEC filings)
May 6: JTS Corporation reported the completion of a $30 million working capital line of credit from The CIT Group, a company of Daiichi Kangyo Bank and Chase Manhattan Corporation, and a $25 million foreign accounts receivable line of credit from RBC Trade Finance Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada.
May 30: JTS EVP Finance and Administration, CFO, and secretary W. Virginia Walker departed the company. JTS VP and corporate controller Joseph A. Prezioso would be Acting CFO.
June 2: JTS Corporation announced four new additions to its 3.0-inch Nordic family of hard drives for notebook computers. This introduction marked JTS' migration to Magneto-Resistive (MR) heads and featured slim profile 3.24 Gigabyte (GB) and 2.69GB as well as ultra-slim 2.1GB and 1.6GB notebook hard disk drives. The four new hard disk drives brought the total number of products in the Nordic family to seven, joining 12.5mm 2.1GB and 1.6GB, and 10.5mm 1.4GB Nordic hard disk drives.
June 4: For the Atari Jaguar CD, Telegames released World Tour Racing by Interactive Entertainment, licensed to Atari Corp., developed by Teque.
July 9: JTS Corporation announced that Joseph A. Prezioso, the company's VP, corporate controller, and Acting CFO, had been promoted to EVP Finance and Administration, CFO, and secretary, replacing the departed W. Virginia Walker.
July 14?: Midway Home Entertainment released Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 by Atari Games, developed by Digital Eclipse, for Saturn, featuring: Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Super Breakout, and Tempest (all properties licensed from Atari Corporation).
July: JTS EVP Worldwide Materials Amit Chokshi departed the company (source). (Laury Scott remained JTS VP worldwide materials.)
July?: Aidan Cullen, previously of Digital Equipment Corporation, joined JTS as VP and corporate controller (replacing the promoted Joseph Prezioso in the role).
August?: Midway Home Entertainment released Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1 by Atari Games, developed by Digital Eclipse, for SNES, featuring: Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Missile Command, Super Breakout, and Tempest (all properties licensed from Atari Corporation).
September 8: Activision announced that it had acquired the rights from Atari/JTS Corporation to develop titles based on the video game properties Asteroids and Battlezone. John Skruch was Director of Licensing, Atari/JTS Corporation.
September 11: American Custom Components announced it had reached an agreement with drive maker JTS Corporation to become the sole source supplier of card-edge connectors for the JTS Champion desktop and Nordic laptop hard disk drives.
September: JTS controller Nina Haralambidis departed the company (to Maxtor).
September: JTS wrapped up its inherited (from Atari) 5-year lease of Atari House, Railway Terrace, Slough, Berkshire, England (which would revert to its original name, Intercity House).
September 26: JTS Corporation announced the signing of an agreement for the sale of $25.2 million of Series D Preferred Stock, of which $5.2 million was provided by certain directors and officers (Mitchell, Tandon and Tramiel) of JTS. The single outside investor was major JTS shareholder Amber Arbitrage; the four together would be referred to later as the "Amber Group". Each Series D share was convertible to 5,000 common shares of stock at $0.65 per share.
September 29: For the Atari Jaguar, Telegames released Zero 5 by Caspian Software, licensed to Atari Corp.
September 30: The JTS Atari division had five employees in the United States, including three in engineering and product development and two in distribution. In addition, the Atari division had six employees outside the United States engaged in sales and finance. (JTS SEC filings)
October: JTS Atari Division European Financial Controller Richard Munday departed the company, and Atari Corp. (U.K.) Limited would be shut down.
October 15: JTS Corporation expanded its Champion family of 3.5" hard disk drives. The Champion family now offered drives with capacities of 4.3 GB and 3.2 GB.
October 16: JTS Corporation announced it had signed an agreement with Ingram Micro, Inc. to distribute the 3.5" Champion family of desktop hard disk drives.
October 27: JTS Corporation announced that a distribution agreement had been signed with Continental Technology to market and sell its Champion line of desktop hard drives.
November 11: JTS Corporation announced two new additions to its Champion 3.5-inch family of hard disk drives for desktop computers: The 6.4 GB Ultra-ATA Champion C6400-3AS (three-disk) and the 4.3 GB Ultra-ATA Champion C4300-2AS (two-disk).
November: The Amber Group made a $3 million loan to JTS from the escrow account established in connection with the Series D financing round.
December 4: In the involuntary bankruptcy petition by debenture holders Nathaniel Grey, Bernard Heerey, Harlene and Jay Pine, and Lana Grey against The Federated Group, Inc. (former subsidiary of Atari Corporation, current legal subsidiary of JTS Corporation), originally filed January 23, 1992, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California placed The Federated Group, Inc., into bankruptcy proceedings. (JTS 10-Q 11/2/97, filed 12/22/97)
December 5: Logicware, under license from Interplay, released Tempest 2000 by Atari Corporation, conversion by High Voltage Software and Logicware, for MacOS. (source for date)
December: JTS VP worldwide materials Laury Scott departed the company.
December 22: JTS announced it had suspended support for the 3-inch portable hard drive business (Nordic family; focusing instead on its Champion family of 3.5-inch desktop hard drives). He also reported a $60.6 million loss in their third quarter ending Sunday, November 2. Further in his report, it was revealed that a 31% reduction in worldwide headcount was implemented taking staffing from 8,400 down to 5,800. (source)
1998
January 15: SegaSoft Networks Inc. announced an exclusive licensing agreement with
Activision Inc. to feature two of the publisher's
anticipated titles for 1998, Battlezone (title by Atari/JTS
Corporation) and Sin, on the HEAT
Internet Game Network. Battlezone was to debut on HEAT in March.
Winter: In India, Sriram "Ram" Chandrashekar was JTS Technology CFO.
February 1: JTS employed approximately 5,500 individuals.
February 12: JTS Corporation announced the completion of a $10 million financing line with NationsBanc Commercial Corporation, a subsidiary of NationsBank.
February 12: HIAC XI, Corp. was established by Hasbro, Inc. for the purpose of acquiring the Atari assets of JTS Corporation.
February 23: JTS sold substantially all of the assets of its Atari Division, consisting primarily of the Atari intellectual property rights and license agreements, to HIAC XI, Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro Interactive, itself a unit of toy company Hasbro, Inc., for $5 million.
March 11: Activision released Battlezone for PC, title licensed from Atari/JTS Corporation.
March 13: JTS Corporation announced the completion of the sale of the company's Atari Division assets to HIACXI Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hasbro Interactive, Inc. for $5 million in cash. See: A History of HIAC XI / Atari Interactive
April 17: JTS Atari Division Director of Licensing John Skruch departed the company (to Electric Communities, which would change its name on 2/25/99 to: communities.com). Still remaining with JTS from the former Atari division: Bob Gleadow (in Europe), Tom Tran (an engineer) and Sam Delgado (in the warehouse). (source)
March: JTS repaid the Amber Group for its $3 million loan of November 1997.
March 26: JTS Corporation held a special meeting of stockholders at its headquarters in San Jose, California. Stockholders approved an amendment to the company's certificate of incorporation to increase the authorized number of shares of common stock to an aggregate of five hundred million shares.
The amendment would allow JTS to complete its Series E financing round: the Amber Group would receive one Series E share for each Series D share that it owned. Each Series E share was convertible to 5000 common shares at $0.10 per share, potentially enabling the Amber Group to recover the $13,398,875 that it had lost on the Series D financing round.
A second proposal to permit holders of not less than 25% of the outstanding voting power of the company to call a special meeting of stockholders did not pass.
April 3: JTS Corporation announced the completion of a $10 million loan facility with the Export-Import Bank of India. Joseph A. Prezioso remained JTS EVP, Finance and Administration and CFO.
April 24: As many as forty additional employees were laid off by JTS Corp. Nearly that many were laid off as recently as the week prior. (source)
May 11: JTS Corporation announced that it was consenting to the removal of its Common Stock and 5 1/4% Debentures from the American Stock Exchange. The last day for trading of the company's securities on the AMEX would be Friday, May 22, 1998. The company expected that a market for its securities would develop over the counter following removal from the AMEX.
June: JTS VP of corporate accounts Frank Sammann departed the company.
August: JTS EVP engineering and COO Kenneth Wing departed the company (to Castlewood Systems). (source)
October: In India, JTS Technology Ltd. managing director Harpal Gill departed the company.
November 17: An involuntary Chapter 7 Petition was filed against JTS Corporation by several creditors. (one source)
December 4: JTS Corporation filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition for relief (Bankruptcy Protection). JTS scheduled assets of $4.2 million and liabilities of $136 million.
1999
January 29: The United
States Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California ordered the JTS
Corporation case converted to Chapter 7 (liquidation). Suzanne L.
Decker was appointed Chapter 7 Trustee.
See: Bankr. N.D. Calif. Case No. 98-59752 plus numerous associated decisions by the Federal court system.
March: In India, JTS Technology Ltd. deputy general manager B Sivaraman departed the company.
Links
- 4 – One More Vision
- JTS Tech prepares to enter Indian market
- ICWhen.com (former site by Donald A. Thomas, Jr.)
Last updated: 2021.04.19