Seagate's Consumer Electronics Director Michael Sklar to Speak at Kagan Video-On-Demand Summit in New York

Consumer Electronics storage expert Michael Sklar will speak as a panelist at THE KAGAN VOD SUMMIT today and Wednesday, February 27-28, 2001 at the New York Helmsley Hotel. The Video-On-Demand (VOD) event offers a view into the future of television - when viewers control what they watch, when they want to watch and how much they want to pay for it. Sklar is senior director of Consumer Electronics Business Development for Seagate Technology, the world's top hard drive maker and the leading storage partner for the Consumer Electronics industry.

Sklar will join the video and entertainment industry's top executives, including keynote speakers John Antioco, CEO, Blockbuster Entertainment and Matthew C. Blank, Chairman & CEO, Showtime Networks, Inc., and Kagan Senior Analyst and COO Larry Gerbrandt, in a discussion of the latest trends in the on-demand entertainment sector. On Tuesday, Sklar will speak on a panel focused on the development of Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) and their adoption by and role in the mass market. The panel will explore the compelling emergence of TV set-top-boxes equipped with hard disc drives, and the raft of devices incorporating massive video hard drives now being prepped for market.

"Video-On-Demand is shaping up as one of the most exciting and innovative new revenue streams in the cable industry's digital cornucopia," said Gerbrandt. "Our meetings feature veteran executives, financiers and deal makers gathered to discuss the pressing issues facing the Pay-Per-View and Video-On-Demand industry with respect to business models and economics, valuations, trends and overall growth of the industry."

Sklar was an early architect of Seagate's Consumer Electronics (CE) strategy. Leading business efforts at Seagate's Consumer Electronics Testing and Engineering Center (CETEC), Sklar manages Seagate's global dedicated CE sales resources, defines and refines CETEC services, directs CE product qualifications, and introduces and promotes new products, services and software. He ensures CE customers have a clear line of communication with Seagate design engineering and management, and using real-time project data and customer feedback, Sklar helps CETEC engineers optimize future Seagate products for the CE market. Sklar also directs Seagate's participation in developing AV streaming and other technology standards for the entire storage industry.

CETEC is a key part of Seagate's strategy to help Consumer Electronics makers deliver disc drive-enabled CE devices such as Personal Video Recorders. Through CETEC, Seagate partners directly with CE OEMs who need hands-on assistance integrating disc drives directly into new classes of consumer devices. CETEC is the industry's only Consumer Electronics-dedicated testing, integration and analysis facility. Seagate began working to develop the CE storage market very early, and in 1997 was first to deliver disc drives for use in this new market.

Seagate is the world's leading provider of Internet Infrastructure storage technology. The Company's products include disc drives for Enterprise applications, PCs and Consumer Electronics, Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions and Server Appliances. Seagate's market leadership is based on delivering award-winning products, customer support and reliability to meet the world's growing demand for information storage. Seagate can be found around the globe and at www.seagate.com.