Western Digital Corporation is one of the largest computer hard disk drive manufacturers in the world. It has a long history in the electronics industry as an integrated circuit maker and a storage products company. Western Digital was founded on April 23, 1970 by Alvin B. Phillips, a Motorola employee, as General Digital, initially a manufacturer of MOS test equipment. It rapidly became a speciality semiconductor maker, with start-up capital provided by several individual investors and industrial giant Emerson Electric Company. Around July 1971 it adopted its current name and soon... introduced its first product, the WD1402A UART. Through the early years of the 1970s, WDC made their money by selling calculator chips; by 1975, they were the largest independent calculator chip maker in the world. The oil crisis of the mid-1970s and the bankruptcy of its biggest calculator customer, Bowmar Instrument, changed its fortunes, however. In 1976, Western Digital declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. After this, Emerson withdrew their support of the company, and WDC was on its own.
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| NYSE symbol: | WDC |
| Founded: | April 23, 1970 |
| Headquarters: | Lake Forest, California |
| Legal structure: | Public company |
| Annual revenue: | $7,453,000,000 |
| Net income: | $470,000,000 |
| Operating income: | $519,000,000 |
| Market cap: | $6,700,000,000 |
| Industries: | Computer industry, Computer hardware, Technology |