Editing MiniScribe (section)

==Foundation, early slump, and recapitalization==
{{pic|File:MiniScribe logo.svg|Logo used from 1983 to 1986}} 
[[File:44 MB HDD and 2 GB CF card.jpeg|thumb|A 44&nbsp;MB, 5.25-inch full-height MiniScribe hard disk, shown with a more recent 2&nbsp;GB [[CompactFlash]] memory card for size comparison]]
The company was started by [[Terry Johnson (entrepreneur)|Terry Johnson]], who had a 20-year career in the hard drive business at such companies as IBM, [[Memorex]] and [[Storage Technology Corporation]]. MiniScribe became a major player when it won a series of contracts to supply IBM's PC division, and their subsequent rapid growth led to an [[initial public offering]] in late 1983, opening for trading in January 1984. However, slow sales of the [[IBM Personal Computer XT|IBM PC/XT]] led IBM to dramatically scale back their orders late that year, forcing MiniScribe to lay off 26% of its staff and causing the value of the stock to plummet. Johnson left the company; at the time he stated that he had been planning to do this for some time and that his departure had "absolutely nothing" to do with IBM.<ref name=quit>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/11/business/business-people-top-officer-quits-at-miniscribe-corp.html |title=Top Officer Quits At Miniscribe Corp. |newspaper=The New York Times |date=11 December 1984}}</ref> Johnson later said "It's a very low inertia industry, you can blow your way into it and get blown out of it very quickly".<ref name="fortune19851125">{{Cite magazine |last=Uttal |first=Bro |date=1985-11-25 |title=The Hard Times in Hard-disk Drives |url=https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1985/11/25/66644/index.htm |magazine=Fortune |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427230240/https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1985/11/25/66644/index.htm |archive-date=2016-04-27}}</ref> Roger Gower, who had been recently promoted to President, took over the CEO role as well.<ref name=quit/>

Shortly thereafter the company was recapitalized with a $20 million investment from [[Hambrecht & Quist]] (H&Q), a [[venture capital]] firm.<ref name=court/> One of H&Q's officers was Quentin Thomas ("QT") Wiles, a turnaround specialist nicknamed "Dr. Fix-It". Wiles took over the CEO position from Gower, running the company remotely from his office in [[Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles]],<ref name=IW-1989>{{cite news |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wDAEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT41 |title=Report Shows Miniscribe Inflated Financial Results |author=Parker, Rachel |date=September 25, 1989 |page=42 |newspaper=InfoWorld |access-date=18 July 2023}}</ref> with a management team made up primarily of accountants.<ref name=convicted>{{cite news |first=Patrice |last=Apodaca |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-08-09-fi-25289-story.html |title=Wiles Convicted of Fraud in MiniScribe Case |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=9 August 1994}}</ref> The company soon returned to profitability, with sales increasing from $114 million at the height of IBM's orders, to $603 million by 1988, when they were named the most well-managed company in the disk drive industry.<ref name="fraud"/> Their major customer at this time was [[Compaq]], but the company was also bidding for major contracts with [[Apple Computer]] and [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] (DEC).<ref name=cook/>