Seagate 2011 Annual Report Download - page 39

Table of Contents
and new product introductions, particularly in the client non-compute market, as well as macroeconomic conditions.
Volatile Public Markets—The price of our ordinary shares may be volatile and could decline significantly.
The stock market, in general, and the market for technology stocks in particular, has recently experienced volatility that has often been
unrelated to the operating performance of companies. If these market or industry-based fluctuations continue, the trading price of our ordinary
shares could decline significantly independent of our actual operating performance, and you could lose all or a substantial part of your
investment. The market price of our ordinary shares could fluctuate significantly in response to several factors, including among others:
• general uncertainty in stock market conditions occasioned by global economic conditions, negative financial news and the
continued instability of several large financial institutions;
• actual or anticipated variations in our results of operations;
• announcements of innovations, new products or significant price reductions by us or our competitors, including those competitors
who offer alternative storage technology solutions;
•
our failure to meet the performance estimates of investment research analysts;
• the timing of announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts or acquisitions;
• general stock market conditions;
•
the occurrence of major catastrophic events;
• changes in financial estimates by investment research analysts;
• changes in the credit ratings of our indebtedness by rating agencies; and
•
the sale of our ordinary shares held by certain equity investors or members of management.
Political events, war, terrorism, natural disasters, public health issues and other circumstances could materially adversely affect our results
of operations and financial condition.
War, terrorism, geopolitical uncertainties, natural disasters, public health issues, and other business interruptions have caused and could
cause damage or disruption to international commerce and the global economy, and thus could have a strong negative effect on our business, our
suppliers, logistics providers, manufacturing vendors and customers. Our business operations are subject to interruption by natural disasters such
as floods and earthquakes, fire, power shortages, terrorist attacks, other hostile acts, labor disputes, public health issues, and other events beyond
our control. Such events could decrease demand for our products, make it difficult or impossible for us to make and deliver products to our
customers, or to receive components from our suppliers, and create delays and inefficiencies in our supply chain. In the event of a natural
disaster, losses and significant recovery time could be required to resume operations and our financial condition and operating results could be
materially adversely affected. Should major public health issues, including pandemics, arise, we could be negatively affected by stringent
employee travel restrictions, additional limitations in freight services, governmental actions limiting the movement of products between regions,
delays in production ramps of new products, and disruptions in our operations and some of our key customers. Recently, the hard disk drive
component supply chain has been significantly disrupted as a result of severe flooding in Thailand, but our component and drive assembly
factories in Thailand were not directly affected by the flood, and continue to be fully operational. The industry's ability to manufacture and ship
drives has continued to recover through the end of the fiscal year and we believe total shipments in the industry were approximately 600 million
units compared, to 657 million units during fiscal year 2011.
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