Data General revenues soar
Once almost given up for dead, Data General looks pretty lively as it reports its highest-ever quarterly revenues.
Today the company beat analyst expectations and turned in its highest-ever quarterly revenues.
For its second fiscal quarter that ended March 29, the company posted record revenues of $389.3 million and net income of $13.8 million, or 32 cents per share, besting First Call's mean estimate of 27 cents per share. The First Call consensus estimates from seven brokers ranged from 15 cents to 32 cents per share.
This is the seventh consecutive quarter that the company has posted increased per-share earnings.
CEO Ronald Skates said the growth is due to increased demand for DG's Intel-based Aviion servers running Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, and for the company's Clariion storage line.
Aviion sales grew by ten percent, while Clariion sales surged by 38 percent compared to one year ago.
The company expects continued solid growth through several pending product introductions. A new Intel-based server family, called the Numaliine family, will debut this spring, followed by the company's Thiin Line Internet appliances.
Data General, like Digital Equipment and Wang Laboratories, rose to prominence as a maker of minicomputer systems and prospered until the market's collapse in the 1980s. All three companies continue struggling to remake themselves. Data General's war with Digital for control of the minicomputer market in the 1980s was the subject of Tracy Kidder's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The soul of a new machine.