JT Storage, Inc. (also known as JTS Corporation) was a maker of inexpensive IDE hard drives for personal computers based in San Jose, California. It was founded in 1994 by "Jugi" Tandon—the inventor of the double-sided floppy disk drive and founder of Tandon Corporation—and David B. Pearce, of former bankrupt disk manufacturer Kalok. Its name is derived from its co-founder, standing for Jugi Tandon Storage.
The company reverse-merged with Jack Tramiel's Atari Corporation in 1996, TEAC used the design as part of a removable HDD system, which was also sold under the Kalok name. After Kalok failed in 1994, JTS hired its founder as their chief technical officer, and licensed the patents involved from TEAC and Pont Peripherals.
Merger with Atari Corporation
On February 13, 1996, JTS announced a reverse merger with former video game and home computer manufacturer, Atari Corporation<!-- Atari Corp. as distinct from "Atari Games" -->. It was primarily a marriage of convenience; JTS had products but little cashflow, while Atari had money, primarily from a series of successful lawsuits earlier in the decade followed by good investments. However, with the failure of its Jaguar game console, losses mounting, and no other products to sell, Atari expected to run out of money within two years. Originally it was planned that the storage company and Atari would be two separate divisions under JTS, but in April the merger was amended so that Atari would merge into JTS, with JTS being the surviving entity. all former Atari employees were either dismissed or relocated to JTS's headquarters. Atari's remaining inventory of Jaguar products proved difficult to get rid of, even at liquidation prices, and the bulk of them remained in stock months after the merger. although licensing to third-parties did result in a handful of releases: THQ's Super Breakout / Battlezone on Game Boy, Midway's Arcade's Greatest Hits: The Atari Collection 1, Activision's Battlezone on PC, and a number of Jaguar games by Telegames. But even with the cash infusion from Atari and the investments, JTS quickly ran out of money. On March 13, 1998, JTS sold the Atari name and assets to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million, less than one-sixtieth what Hasbro had paid for Tiger Electronics earlier that same year. On two occasions in April, JTS staff were laid off including some former long-time Atari individuals, and the company was soon forced out of AMEX. Later that year, on December 11, JTS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Its president and CEO, Tom Mitchell, returned to the disk storage industry the following year when he founded Fabrinet.