Western Digital Corp, the Irvine, California-based hard drive maker, has reported a first-quarter net loss of $106.3m on revenue down 37.5% at $407m, compared to a net loss of $194.7m in the year-ago quarter. Results include restructuring charges of $32.3m, primarily related to the transfer of all desktop hard drive production from Singapore to Malaysia, […]
Western Digital Corp, the Irvine, California-based hard drive maker, has reported a first-quarter net loss of $106.3m on revenue down 37.5% at $407m, compared to a net loss of $194.7m in the year-ago quarter. Results include restructuring charges of $32.3m, primarily related to the transfer of all desktop hard drive production from Singapore to Malaysia, and $37.7m in charges stemming from a previously-announced product recall. The bottom line also includes a one-time gain of $90.6m from the redemption of debentures for common stock. Excluding the one-time items, net loss per share would have been $1.32, when analysts surveyed by First Call were looking for a loss of $1.39.
The poor results – marking the seventh straight quarterly loss for the company – were in line with an earlier warning, issued last month. Prior to that announcement, analysts had been looking for a loss of $1.03. The company blamed its latest poor quarter on continued pricing pressure in the desktop drive business and lower unit shipments. Shortages of certain components also caused the company to miss some shipments in August and, beyond that, the company said OEM demand tailed off in the last month of the quarter to unexpectedly low levels.
