EMC reports Asian growth
The storage giant's sales for the Asia-Pacific region grow 104 percent year over year for the first quarter ended March 2001.
Key contributors were the telecommunications, financial and data center services industries in the region, said Steve Faris, EMC Asia-Pacific vice president of marketing.
The company's first-quarter sales in the region totaled $279 million, contributing about 12 percent to global revenue of $2.34 billion.
"This year, Asia-Pacific will significantly outpace growth in the other regions," said Faris, who declined to reveal growth projections.
He acknowledged that the slowdown in regional information technology spending will have an impact on EMC's revenues, but maintained that "several factors continue to play in our favor."
These factors include growth in content that needs to be stored and managed, especially in the telecommunications, financial and data center services sectors, he added.
"Leading companies realize the need to continue to invest in storage solutions to stay ahead of competition, even if they must cut back on other IT spending," Faris said.
Based in Hopkinton, Mass., EMC's customers in the region include SingTel, NTT DoCoMo, Telekom Malaysia and National Computer Systems. Competitors in the storage business include IBM, Hitachi Data Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Sun, Compaq Computer and Network Appliance.
EMC last week reported net income of $399 million for the first quarter, up 20 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The storage firm also lowered its sales expectation this year to $10.6 billion, from its initial goal of $12 billion, due to decreased corporate spending.
Last year, Asia-Pacific contributed $887 million to its total revenue of $8.9 billion.
Staff writer Irene Tham reported from Singapore.