14 DAY TRIAL // As odd as it sounds, some corporations have only recently finished their fiscal years, which often don't coincide with calendar years. First we have looked at Logitech and now we have Western Digital.
Western Digital's fiscal year 2013 ended on March 29, which means that the past month was spent by its financial office on tallying shipments and income.
One thing we've noticed, and which Western Digital itself remarks in its press release, is that the acquisition of Hitachi is paying dividends.
Sales of HGST products were very strong, and with them added to WD's own supply chain, it all made for some very strong figures.
Some decline in demand did happen in some areas, particularly branded consumer products, but everything still turned out positive.
"Strong execution by our HGST and WD subsidiaries drove outstanding results in the March quarter as we continue to capitalize on the secular growth of digital data," said Steve Milligan, president and chief executive officer.
"Overall industry demand was in line with our expectations. In our business, we saw strength in enterprise, stable performance in client and consumer electronics, and some anticipated seasonal softness in Branded Products."
For those who want the numbers, the total HDD shipments were of 60.2 million during the quarter finished on March 29.
It led to net income of $391 million / €299 million and revenue of $3.8 billion / €2.9 billion.
Overall, it was a progress from the $3 billion / €2.3 billion reported during the same period of the previous year.
Moving forward, WD will have to do its best to profit from its most recent investments, like the Skyera SSD deal. It also has a new executive for Strategy and Corporate Development, so we'll have to see how that goes, and how Seagate and Toshiba react.