14 DAY TRIAL // Western Digital, one of the leading vendors of traditional hard disk drives, has just announced the numbers for its second fiscal quarter ended on December 26, 2008. According to the report, the company recorded revenue of $1.8 billion, on shipments of approximately 35.5 million units. The net income was at $14 million, or $0.06 per share.
Western Digital said that it has shipped 13.8 million 2.5-inch hard drives, while the company’s desktop-ready 3.5 hard drive lineup recorded shipments of 4.1 million units. When compared to last year’s numbers of 8.7 million and 4.1 million, respectively, Western Digital’s results appear to confirm another market fact, namely that portable computer systems have registered better sales than desktop PCs, in 2008. The Lake Forest, California-based storage maker also said that its branded products accounted for 22 percent of the hard drive revenue in the December quarter, compared to the 18 percent registered a year ago.
“Against a backdrop of unprecedented global economic turmoil and a rapid intra-quarter fall off in demand for hard drives, WD acted swiftly to align production and operating expenses with significantly lower-than-originally planned unit volumes,” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer. “With a strong balance sheet and competitive cost structure, we plan to continue investing in next-generation product platforms and technologies during this downturn. We are focused on maintaining our leadership in technology deployment, ease-of-use features, and availability of the right products for our diversified customer base. We remain enthused about our long-term prospects as a full-line storage supplier in addressing the demands of both the commercial and consumer markets as the digitization of content continues to grow.”
The company’s financial results included charges of $113 million related to the restructuring plan announced back in December 2008. According to the report, Western Digital generated $300 million in cash from operations during the December quarter, for a total cash and cash equivalent of $1.4 billion.