07:37 PM ET 11/05/98
Sun expects European revenues to grow
ZURICH, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. network computing supplier
Sun Microsystems Inc expects its share of revenues from Europe
to grow from about 25 percent now to 45 percent in four or five
years, executives said on Thursday.
They said Europe was a strong market for Sun's products,
especially enterprise systems, or hardware and software for
running businesses on the public Internet or private intranets.
"We've grown very rapidly here...Europe grew 36 percent in
the last quarter," Chief Operating Officer Ed Zander told
reporters during a stop in Zurich.
Zander did not specify a figure for the quarter. But in the
fiscal year 1998 that ended June 30, Sun posted $2.7 billion in
revenues from the region Europe, which includes the Middle East
and Africa, out of $9.8 billion global revenues.
While the United States accounted for over 50 percent of
fiscal 1998 sales, European Vice-President Robert Youngjohn said
Europe's share was rising.
"My view is that we can grow faster than the U.S. and I
would say the natural proportion (of Sun's sales from Europe) at
a steady state in four or five years would be 45 percent,"
Youngjohn said at a joint briefing.
"Barring any economic catastrophe, I have no doubt that the
market is extremely strong for our products, particularly in the
enterprise space," he added.
Catalysts for growth in Europe included new network
installations to cope with the January 1 launch of the euro
single currency in 11 countries and new systems to head off the
year 2000 millenium bug, the executives said.
Zander said Sun had raised its profile in Europe in the past
few years by adding sales and service staff, especially people
with backgrounds in large account selling and commercial
selling.
"We have reinvented Europe in the past 3 or 4 years," Zander
said.
Sun now has more than 5,400 employees in the region, with
sales and service in over 25 countries as well as a Scottish
manufacturing plant and research and development centres.
((Zurich newsroom +41 1 631 73 40, fax +41 1 202 55 38,
zurich.newsroom@reuters.com))
====================================================================
My target of $80 in December 1999 still holds and SUNW should earn $2.80 for FY 1999. Any surprise IMO will be to the upside.
Long and proud...
EKS |
