Western Digital buys Komag. Having platters matters

Komag makes the platters that spin inside a hard drive and the media is the message WD wants to spin to the media.

John Coyne, WD's CEO, reckons having the media firm inside his pocket allows the firm to better control its own future. Western Digital bought a head firm called Read Rite in 2003.

Komag customers who aren't called Western Digital but Hitachi Data Systems may not be too happy buying platters from the competition.

So Hitachi will probably buy its platters somewhere else. µ