Fiscal Q1 Revenue Up 5 Percent, Hard Drive Shipments Up 12 Percent, Net Income Up 36 Percent from Year-ago Quarter
LAKE FOREST, Calif. – Western Digital Corp. today reported record revenue of $2.2 billion, record hard drive shipments of 44.1 million units and net income of $288 million, or $1.25 per share, for its first fiscal quarter ended Oct. 2, 2009. In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $2.1 billion, unit shipments of 39.4 million, and net income of $211 million.
The company generated $434 million in cash from operations during the first quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of $2.1 billion.
“For the second consecutive quarter, demand for hard drives was stronger than expected as the positive industry conditions that materialized in the June quarter continued throughout the September quarter,” said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer. “We believe this demand is being driven primarily by consumers as a result of the growing social media phenomenon. This is creating demand in mobile and desktop PCs, branded products and enterprise storage. Hard drive inventories remain at historically low levels, reflecting industry discipline in managing supply and demand.
“In the September quarter, we leveraged our organization-wide agility to respond to unexpectedly robust demand and again generated strong financial results. As we enter the December quarter, demand remains strong and our product line-up, availability and cost profile position us to benefit from continuing growth opportunities.”
Coyne noted that WD continues to realize tangible benefits from its investments in technology, products, processes and capacity over the last several years, enabled by the strongest balance sheet in the industry:
- The company continues to lead the industry in time-to-market volume shipments of leading capacity points in all segments of the ATA drive market with its WD Scorpio® Blue™ 1 TB, 750 GB and 640 GB hard drives utilizing 333 GB-per-platter technology. Additionally, the company leads the market with shipments of its 2 TB 3.5-inch hard drives to the near-line enterprise, desktop, CE and external storage markets.
- In branded products, WD continued to grow its business in fiscal Q1 even as it simultaneously refreshed its entire branded products line-up, positioning it well for continued growth entering the holiday season and in the year ahead. The company’s stylish, new offerings include smaller, smarter, more portable and secure My Passport™ and My Book® solutions that feature new WD SmartWare™ backup, synchronization and content visualization software, hardware encryption and an innovative e-label display.
- WD also expanded its line of media players with the introduction of the WD TV™ Mini Media Player, with support for RealVideo™ content playback, providing an affordable and convenient way for consumers to play their stored digital content, and the WD TV™ Live Media Player, featuring network connectivity and Full-HD 1080p resolution.
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About WD
WD, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users’ data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.
WD was founded in 1970. The company’s storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company’s Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning industry demand and WD’s prospects for growth. The foregoing forward-looking statements are based on WD’s current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including: the impact of recent uncertainty and volatility in global economic conditions; supply and demand conditions in the hard drive industry; actions by competitors; unexpected advances in competing technologies; uncertainties related to the development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; business conditions and growth in the various hard drive markets; pricing trends and fluctuations in average selling prices; changes in the availability and cost of commodity materials and specialized product components that WD does not make internally; and other risks and uncertainties listed in WD’s recent Form 10-K filed with the SEC on August 14, 2009, to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
