Quanta Storage Inc (廣明) yesterday saw its shares tumble by the 10 percent daily limit after the company lost a price-fixing case and was ordered, together with other defendants, to pay Hewlett Packard Inc US$176 million.
Quanta Storage nosedived to NT$41.4 on the Taipei Exchange.
Quanta Storage, a subsidiary of laptop maker Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), is shifting away from disk drive manufacturing by focusing on a new industrial robotics business.
Jurors at a federal court in Houston, Texas, reached a verdict in favor of HP, which claimed that Quanta Storage and its US unit; Sony Optiarc Inc; Toshiba Corp; Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc; Panasonic Corp; NEC Corp; and Samsung Electronics Co conspired to raise the prices of disk drives, Taoyuan-based Quanta Storage said.
Quanta Storage said that it regretted the jury’s misunderstanding about its business model.
The company has a different business model from those of the other defendants, as it only assembles disk drives on a contract basis for Sony, which sold the completed products directly to HP, Quanta Storage said.
Before the verdict, the Fair Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice had found that Quanta Storage and its US unit did not breach any rules and did not hamper market competition, the company said, adding that as a result, no penalty was imposed.
Quanta Storage said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it has received notification from its lawyers about the preliminary verdict.
The company is discussing with its lawyers further legal action to safeguard shareholders’ interests, the filing said.
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