STOCK WATCH

Western Digital

Western Digital has reported a worse-than-expected loss of $45 million in the third quarter ended 28 March, compared with a net income of $82.6 million in the same quarter a year ago. The slowdown in the disk-drive market, due to the Asian crisis and an industry glut of the storage devices, has been blamed for sales plunging 24 per cent from $1.1 billion to $831.3 million in a year.

WorldCom bonus

WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers has received a $17 million bonus for overseeing last year's takeover of MCI Communications, beating rivals BT and GTE.

His basic salary was $935,000 and he owns share options worth about $50 million. His growing wealth mirrors the long-distance telephone company's fortunes whose shares have risen 44 per cent this year, compared with a 16 per cent rise in the Dow Jones.

Kingfisher

Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy, chief executive of Kingfisher, the high street retail group, has been awarded a #680,000 bonus - an increase from #325,000.

This boosted his total salary by 39 per cent to #1.4 million last year.

The package included a #665,000 salary, a long-term incentive payment of #111,000 and an increase in the value of his pension of #24,000. His salary was reflected in the group's pre-tax profit increase from #388.7 million to #520.5 million and turnover of #6.41 billion.

Gateway 2000

PC maker Gateway 2000 Inc, which is changing its name to Gateway, has become the latest component of the S&P 500 Stock Index. Standard & Poor's Financial Information Services announced that Gateway would replace property and casualty insurance firm USF&G.

Data General

Data General's first loss in 10 quarters - $4.5 million on sales down seven per cent at 4361.8 million - has meant reorganisation at the top.

The disappointing figures were blamed on the problem it experienced shifting the FC5000 fibre channel, Raid 5 controller, for its Clariion storage systems. It has been forced to sell its SCSI technology against faster ultraSCSI arrays from its rivals. Former sales chief Joel Schwartz has been put in charge of Clariion and Ethan Allen has been made Aviion boss.

IBM

IBM has announced that its board of directors have approved a quarterly dividend increase of 10 per cent, from $.20 per common share to $.22 per common share. The dividend is payable on 10 June. The company's dividend has increased 76 per cent since 1996. Also authorised by the board is the repurchase of up to an additional $3.5 billion of IBM common shares.

Since 31 January 1995, the company has repurchased nearly $20 billion of its common stock.