PC manufacturer Fujitsu Siemens Computers has failed to meet its
own target for revenue in the fiscal first half-year. The company
took in about 2.5 billion euros (£1.56bn) for the six months to 30
September.
Revenue dropped 4% from the 2.6 billion euros reported in the same
period last year.
However, pre-tax profit for the half-year amounted to three million
euros, against a pretax loss of 109 million euros a year ago.
Company spokeswoman Judith Grindal attributed the drop in revenue
to a weak market, and the company's decision not to enter
loss-making deals in the consumer segment.
"We have not joined the price war. This is a strategy which we
talked about at (the trade show) CeBIT six months ago."
The company is not releasing sales figures on PCs or notebooks,
Grindal said, but "those are all down." Nonetheless, she said,
sales of enterprise servers were up 15%, storage up 155%, mobile
PCs up 4%, and professional services up 28%.
In contrast to other companies in the sector, Grindal continued,
Fujitsu Siemens is hiring new staff.
"In the first half-year we hired 400 new people, mainly in the area
of enterprise sales and professional services, and mostly outside
Germany. In the second half-year we will be recruiting another
400," she said.
The company is still sticking to its target of a full-year profit
of 30 million euros, Grindal said. "Of course we are aware that the
market is still very unstable. People are very cautious about their
investments at the moment, and so we can't really be 100% certain
about how the next half-year will go, but we still believe we will
make the profit target."