 The gut feelings surfaced as an organic truth. That Western Digital has greatly succeeded in carving out its distinct niche for the difficult landscapes of data storage. Globally, the company has impinged on the psyches of people and the brand recall is simply awesome. In fact, many of the tactical geographies including US, Middle-East and Africa consumers swear by the name of brand WD. In India as well, the company has surprised many recalcitrant segments of the IT industry with its holistic offerings–be it underlying technologies, smartness of products, distribution innovation, channel galvanization or compliance with warranty assurance. As a matter of fact, WD has completed its first phase of India operations quite successfully, now the time for consolidation and intensive market penetration has started. For the company, India has become one of the focused markets of the world. In congruence with elevated status of India as the highly potential market for the company, Western Digital (WD) has brought the India operations directly under the conveniently located regional headquarters based out of Dubai (UAE). The company thinks that the geographical spread covering South Asia, Middle-East, Central & West Asia, and Africa should be covered and treated as a single stretch of market expanse which shows great similarity in terms of socio-economic behavioural pattern and where India has been showing leadership quality, inspiring many of the like-minded nations into performing much better on socio-cultural, political and economic fronts.
In the meantime, Western Digital, true to the popular gut feelings, has performed nicely signifying excellent spurt in its revenue profiles. For fiscal year 2010, the company posted revenues of $9.8 billion, a growth of 32 per cent the corresponding period last year (with revenues of $7.5 billion). The latest results ended July 2nd, 2010 shows a net income of $1.4 billion as compared to that of ($470 million) last fiscal. In the fourth quarter (Q4) ending July 2nd 20101, revenues totaled $2.4 billion, hard drive unit shipments were 49.7 million and net income was $265 million. The quarterly results included $27 million of expense related to litigation settlements. In the year-ago quarter, the company posted revenue of $1.9 billion, shipped 40.0 million hard drives, and reported net income and earnings per share of $196 million and $0.86, respectively. This included $5 million of income from the resolution of restructuring accruals and an $18 million gain on the sale of the company’s substrate manufacturing facility in Sarawak, Malaysia.
“Despite softer than anticipated June quarter demand, fiscal year 2010 was another year of significant growth and profitability for Western Digital,” said John Coyne, President & CEO, WD. “The long-term demand for low-cost, high-volume storage driven by the proliferation of data and content-hungry consumer and commercial devices remains strong. With our focus on customer needs, quality, low cost, and high asset efficiency in the highest growth markets, we believe WD is well positioned to continue to generate growth on a sustained and profitable basis”, added Coyne. The company generated $363 million in cash from operations during the June quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of $2.7 billion. As previously announced, the company completed the acquisition of the magnetic media sputtering operations of Hoya Corporation during the June quarter for $233 million in cash.
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