From the WSJ:
Whoops. Looks to me like Larry has be takin' names in velcro and kickin' little puppies.
Aren't there some old UIS employees on this thread who can comment, and give us some insite, or did you guys all sell at 50??
October 13, 2000
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Unisys Looks to Boost Profits Next Year
After Its Third-Quarter Net Fell 69%
By WILLIAM M. BULKELEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Unisys Corp. said it plans to exit some low-margin businesses and offer early retirement to 1,500 employees in an effort to boost profits next year. The computer services and hardware firm also reported that third-quarter net income fell 69% on a 9% revenue decline.
At 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading Thursday, Unisys's long-depressed stock rose 19 cents to $9.88 in heavy trading, despite the overall market decline.
Unisys Shares Drop on Report of Lower-Than-Expected Net (July 19)
Unisys Expects Profit to Trail Forecasts; Share Price Tumbles 38% on Warning (June 30)
Unisys Net Income Fell 3% in Quarter, Meeting Estimates (April 14)
Gary Helmig, an analyst with Wit Soundview, said the bounce reflected relief at the fulfilled expectations. "People were concerned it would be worse," he said. During a conference call, Unisys didn't urge analysts to cut their earnings forecasts, as it has for the past several quarters.
The Blue Bell, Pa., company said third-quarter net fell to $42.9 million, or 14 cents a diluted share, from $138.4 million, or 43 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell to $1.69 billion from $1.86 billion. Currency adjustments accounted for three percentage points of the revenue decline. Unisys said it is comfortable with fourth-quarter earnings estimates of 41 cents a share.
Despite the weak results, Lawrence Weinbach, chairman and chief executive, said he was "encouraged by signs of recovery … after the slow first half of the year." He added, "We're in the last phase of the turnaround" launched three years ago when he became CEO.
John Jones, an analyst with Salomon Smith Barney, said that "it looks as though they're ready to start showing growth against easy comparisons."
Revenue for the services business, about 60% of the company's total, fell 9%. Mr. Weinbach said the drop reflects a failure to get many systems-integration and other contracts in the first half. He said new contracts are starting to increase.
Mr. Weinbach said Unisys needs to redesign most of its "repeatable solutions" -- industry-specific software and hardware installations -- so they can handle Internet transactions. To free development funds, Unisys will stop improving about half of its 30 such systems in order to focus on the 15 most-profitable business areas, he said.
Unisys also will try to improve profitability by avoiding low-margin commodity-hardware business, which amounts to about $500 million a year, Mr. Weinbach said. He declined to specify which lines will be dropped. One possibility, according to people familiar with the industry: Hewlett-Packard Co. personal computers, which Unisys resells to certain customers.
Unisys said sales of computer systems fell 10%, with its proprietary ClearPath systems falling from year-earlier levels. The company said it received 175 orders with an average selling price of $400,000 for its new ES 7000 systems based on Intel Corp. microprocessors and Microsoft Corp.'s DataCenter software.
Unisys declined to say how many of the 1,500 U.S. employees who are offered early retirement it expects to take the offer. It currently has 36,000 employees, including 18,000 in the U.S
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