Apr, 2002 : Compaq Executive Says Storage Sales Supassed Expectations

📅 April 8, 2002 - Mike Winkler, the executive vice president of Compaq Computer Corp., announced today that the company's data storage system sales exceeded forecasts in the last six months. He argued that customers had not abandoned Compaq despite the uncertainty over its plan to merge with Hewlett-Packard Co. and said Compaq would improve its product line if the deal would go through.

With sales of data storage devices about a third higher than expected for the end of last year, Compaq generated around $900 million in sales for the six months ended in the middle of March, Winkler said. The bulk of those sales were in the first quarter, which Compaq (compaq.com) reports on April 23.
Declining to give a figure, he said that the amount of revenue produced represents a drop from the comparable period a year earlier but was better than competitors like EMC Corp.
?We are clearly in a share-gaining position,? he said.
While there was tremendous pricing competition pressure in the storage industry last year, Winkler said he did not think customers had waited to place orders at the last minute, in hopes of negotiating discounted prices, as some technology companies have suggested.
About 40 percent of technology sales are in the last month of a given quarter, he said.
?I don't think this quarter was any more severe or less severe,'' he said, referring to the industry as a whole.?