EMC has announced strong fourth-quarter and full fiscal year financial results for 2004. The figures represent the company’s sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-on-year revenue growth.
The world’s No 1 storage equipment manufacturer declared full fiscal year revenue of US$8.23bn, an increase of 32pc on the previous year’s figures. Total consolidated revenue for EMC’s fourth quarter was US$2.36bn, 27pc higher than the US$1.86bn reported for the fourth quarter of 2003.
Net income for the full 2004 fiscal year jumped 76pc to US$871m, up from US$496m for the full year 2003. Quarterly net income for the last quarter of 2004 grew 46pc year on year, to US$321m.
According to figures issued by the company, EMC’s revenue growth was strong across all major business lines last year. Its systems business grew revenues by 17pc. Total software revenues, including licence and maintenance revenues, grew to US$2.98bn and represented more than one third of total revenues for 2004. This was partly due to the “outstanding performance” of EMC’s recent software acquisitions, which included Dantz, Documentum, Legato and Vmware, the company said.
Services revenues grew by 44pc throughout last year, on the back of increased customer demand for professional service implementations and increased software maintenance revenues.
Consolidated international revenues also performed well, growing by 39pc in 2004; Europe, Asia and Latin America all saw double-digit revenue growth. International revenue accounted for 42pc of EMC’s total yearly revenues, up slightly from 40pc in 2003.
EMC president and CEO Joe Tucci said that the company had “a strong finish to a solid 2004”. “We extended our market and technology position across all of our major segments and geographies, while significantly advancing our information lifecycle management and Vmware’s virtual infrastructure strategies,” he said.
Looking ahead, EMC said it expected consolidated revenues for the first quarter of this year to be between US$2.23bn and US$2.25bn. Consolidated revenues for 2005 are anticipated to grow at roughly twice the market rate, which is estimated to increase by 7pc-8pc. Tucci added that this year, EMC plans to increase its share of the market which is forecast to be worth US$51bn.
By Gordon Smith
