EMC acquires strong Q1 revenue growth

With three of its newly acquired software companies pulling their weight, EMC charged to one of its strongest quarters in recent memory.

EMC reported $1.87bn in first quarter revenue. This marks a crisp 35 percent jump over the $1.38bn reported in the same quarter one year ago. EMC also pulled in $140m in net income in this year's Q1 versus $35m last year.

EMC's results were boosted by the performance of a string of acquisitions made over the last year. The Legato, Documentum and VMware software divisions all had revenue count on the first quarter's books. Still, EMC worked to assure investors and customers that its core performance remains strong without the added applications help.

"The first quarter marked EMC's highest revenue growth rate in nearly three years, measured with or without the inclusion of our recent acquisitions," said Joe Tucci, CEO at EMC. "This accelerating growth, which I believe is among the highest of any major IT supplier, is being fueled by customers around the world embracing EMC technology that saves them money, simplifies their operations and protects their information assets."

No doubt a pickup in IT spending played a part in the smart quarter as well.

EMC helped investors out by tracking non-acquisition revenue gains in the quarter. EMC's core business grew 21 per cent year-over-year. EMC's Documentum, Legato and VMware units also saw their revenue surge 30 per cent when compared to Q1 results from last year.

EMC's bread-and-butter hardware business increased revenue by 19 percent, while EMC-only software jumped 26 percent and services increased by 23 per cent. The hardware side of the house accounted for $895m in Q1, and services chipped in $473m.

The EMC-only software revenue is key for the company. EMC has been working to have software take up a bigger portion of its overall sales and has largely succeeded. It posted $251m in software revenue this quarter compared to $200m last year. With all of its software businesses reporting, EMC posted $484m in applications revenue.

EMC expects to post second quarter revenue between $1.95bn and $1.98bn. ®

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