IT spending is stabilising, says EMC

23 Jul 2009

Storage giant EMC, which employs 2,000 people in Cork, has reported Q2 revenues of US$3.2bn, up 3pc on the most recent quarter but down 11pc on last year.

The company reported profits of US$205.2m, up 6pc on last quarter but down from US$360.1m last year.

In the second quarter, EMC generated operating cash flow of US$574 million, free cash flow of $400 million and ended the quarter with record cash and investments of US$10 billion.

Year to date EMC generated operating cash flow of $1.44 billion and free cash flow of approximately US$1.1 billion.

“This marks another quarter of solid execution, and I am proud of the EMC and VMware teams around the world that produced these results,” commented Joe Tucci, EMC chairman, President and CEO.

“We are focused on four of the hottest and fastest-growing areas of IT spending – next-generation fully virtualised data centers; cloud computing; virtualized desktops and clients; and next-generation backup, recovery and archive solutions.

“This, together with our market leading products, solutions, services and proven go-to-market model gives us confidence that EMC will continue to gain market share this year. When IT markets resume to more normal spending rates, we expect EMC will return to generating double-digit revenue growth.”

David Goulden, EMC executive vice president and chief financial officer, said that while global conditions remain challenging and IT spending is down year on year EMC’s second-quarter financial performance reflects customers’ budget stabilisation and improved business predictability.

“Continued focus on helping customers address their most pressing IT priorities helped EMC’s Information Infrastructure business achieve balanced sequential revenue growth across all major geographies and in every business unit.

“Our sustained focus on cost containment and operational efficiency helped drive sequential growth in our Information Infrastructure gross and operating margins,” Goulden said.

By John Kennedy

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com