NEWS: EMC Reports Revenue and Net Income Growth Exceeded 30% in First Quarter
HOPKINTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 1998--EMC Corporation, the world's leading provider of enterprise storage systems and software, today reported sharp year-over-year growth in revenues and net income for the first quarter of 1998.
Revenue for the first quarter was $828 million, 34% higher than the first quarter of 1997. Net income for the quarter was $146 million, up 32% compared with last year's first quarter. On a diluted basis, earnings per share were $0.28 in the quarter, up 27% compared with the first quarter of 1997.
Michael C. Ruettgers, EMC President and CEO, said, "For the fourth quarter in a row our year-over-year revenue and net income growth rate exceeded 30%, a sustained level of growth that is unusual for a company our size. Our 34% revenue increase over last year's first quarter represents our highest year-to-year quarterly growth rate in nearly three years. These results were fueled by the rapid acceptance of Fibre Channel connectivity for our Symmetrix Enterprise Storage systems in various operating environments, with particularly strong demand from HP-UX, Sun Solaris and Windows NT customers. In our first full quarter offering multi-platform Fibre Channel connectivity for Symmetrix systems, more than 20% of all Symmetrix systems revenue included Fibre Channel connectivity. We also enjoyed a 150% increase in software revenue compared with the same period a year ago."
The results included strong performance across all geographies in both direct and indirect sales, higher gross margins, and a strong positive cash flow. Cash and investments reached $1.8 billion at the end of the first quarter, up $160 million from the fourth quarter of 1997.
Highlights of the first quarter included the doubling of storage capacity in EMC's Symmetrix systems through the introduction of 3.5-inch, 18-gigabyte disk drives, without sacrificing their recognized status as the world's fastest storage systems. One third of Symmetrix systems revenue in the first quarter came from systems configured with the new disk drives. "We managed through another major hardware transition without missing a beat during the quarter, as customers embraced this new technology," noted Ruettgers.
In March EMC was named the 8th-best performer among all Standard
& Poors 500 companies by Business Week magazine in its comprehensive annual "Business Week 50" rankings. Also during the quarter, EMC announced several software enhancements and the Fibre Channel connectivity option for Windows NT environments; a new global technology and marketing alliance with The Baan Company, a leader in enterprise business software; and a strategic reseller relationship with Silicon Graphics, Inc., a leader in high-performance computing.
EMC Corporation, a Fortune 500 company based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the world's leading supplier of intelligent enterprise storage systems and software for mainframe and open systems environments. The company has offices worldwide, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. For further information about EMC products and services, EMC's home page can be accessed at emc.com. -0-
EMC and Symmetrix are registered trademarks and EMC Enterprise Storage is a trademark of EMC Corporation. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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