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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Almost two years ago, Rick Belluzzo decided it was better to be the No. 1 at mid-sized data storage company Quantum Corp. than the No. 3 at Microsoft Corp.

He left the world's largest software company because he wanted to have a larger impact and found that hard to do at Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft because of its size and reach in the software market.

"I was attracted to Quantum because I could have a narrower and deeper focus," Belluzzo told Reuters recently. "Microsoft is a great company, but it's hard to get a sense you're driving anything."

Not least of all, "it's Bill's and Steve's company," he said, referring to Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

Quantum, which has about 2,000 employees and had fiscal 2004 revenue of $808 million and a net loss of $62 million, is roughly halfway through a three-year process of moving from a vendor of just tape storage systems to one of both tape and hard disk drive-based storage subsystems, Belluzo said.

"Our view is that things will continue to evolve to where disk and tape will be very seamlessly integrated," said Belluzzo, 50, who is no stranger to the storage business.

reuters