Editing SyQuest Technology (section)

==History==
[[File:44mbdrive.jpg|thumb|SyQuest 44&nbsp;MB - 5.25" removable hard disk. Dimensions are 131.38mm x 131.38mm x12.85mm high.]]

The company was named partially after the founder, Syed Iftikar, because of a company meeting wherein it was decided that "SyQuest" ought to be a shortened name for "Sy's Quest".

The company announced its first product family of 3.9" (100&nbsp;mm) cartridge disk drives and associated Q-Pak cartridges at the 1982 [[National Computer Conference]], surprising observers with the low price of $750 for the drive and $35 for a cartridge.<ref name="morgan198209">{{Cite magazine |last=Morgan |first=Chris |date=September 1982 |title=NCC Report |url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1982-09/page/n58/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2024-12-29 |magazine=BYTE |pages=58-61}}</ref> They achieved limited success in government markets where removable media were required for security purposes.

In 1986, SyQuest announced the SQ555 and its SQ400 associated cartridge, a 44&nbsp;MB 5¼-inch removable cartridge hard disk drive, using the industry standard 130&nbsp;mm disk as its medium.<ref>{{cite journal  |journal=Electronic News
 |title=[Unknown title]  |date=June 23, 1986  |page=16}}</ref> Double capacity versions, the SQ5110 and SQ800 were introduced in 1991. This generation of products became the ''de facto'' standard in the Apple [[Macintosh]] world to store, transfer and backup large amounts of data such as generated by graphic artists, musicians and engineers.<ref>{{cite journal
 |first=Syed  |last=Iftikar  |date=March 13, 1992  |title=To out stockholders
 |journal=SyQuest Technology 1991 Annual Report  |pages=2}}</ref>

SyQuest went public on the NASDAQ in 1991.<ref name=RA90etc.CHM>{{cite web  |website=Computer History Museum
|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Thin_Film_Memory_Media/Thin_Film_Media.oral_history.2006.102657957.pdf
|title=Oral History Panel on Hard Disk Drive Transition to Thin Film Media
|date=April 17, 2006}}</ref>

===Bankruptcy===
In early 1996, the company cut 60% of its workforce;<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/03/business/company-news-syquest-to-cut-60-of-work-force-and-post-a-loss.html
|title=SyQuest to cut 60% of work force and post a loss
|date=February 3, 1996}}</ref> later that year, company namesake Syed Iftikar was fired "in a management shakeup."<ref>{{cite news
|newspaper=[[BizJournals]].com (San Jose)
|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1997/07/07/story7.html
|title=SyQuest charges founder with theft of trade secrets 
|author=Pete Barlas  |date=July 6, 1997}}</ref>

After 1997, SyQuest did not fare well in the market. Their core desktop publishing customers began increasingly to use [[CD-R]] media and [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] to transfer files, while [[Iomega]]'s [[Zip drive]]s dominated the [[small office/home office]] (SOHO) market. Over the period 1995 to 1997, sales declined, resulting in a series of losses. In the first quarter of 1997 those losses had been reduced to $6.8 million with net revenues increasing to $48.3 million. This compares to a net loss of $33.8 million, or $2.98 per share, on net revenues of $78.7 million for the same period the year before.<ref name="FOLDOC" />

They company laid off half of its staff in August 1998 before filing for bankruptcy by the end of the year.<ref name=SyQuestdownhill.NYT98>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/08/business/company-news-syquest-technology-to-cut-50-of-staff.html |title=SyQuest Technology to cut 50% of staff |date=August 8, 1998}}</ref><ref name=SyQuestBankrupt.NYT/> Portions of the company were purchased by [[Iomega]] Corp. in January 1999, with SyQuest retaining the right to sell its remaining inventory on condition of renaming themselves SYQT. While the company's original ''syquest.com'' website continued to provide technical support for its original products until 2003, its rebranded ''syqt.com'' website became a digital disk drive and media retailer. By 2009 that website ceased to exist, with its domain (www.syqt.com) put up for sale in the Chinese market.