SCOTTS VALLEY (dpa-AFX) - Seagate Technology plc (STX) reported preliminary financial results for its fiscal second quarter ended December 30, 2011. The company stated that the acquisition of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd's hard disk drive business closed on December 19, 2011 and these preliminary financial results include Samsung operating activity from that date.
The company shipped approximately 47 million disk drives, which included approximately 700,000 Samsung disk drives, and expects to report revenue for its fiscal second quarter 2012 of $3.1 - $3.2 billion.
Before giving effect to charges related to the acquisition of Samsung's hard disk drive business, the company expects gross margin as a percent of revenue to be at least 30.5%, operating expenses to be approximately $390 million, and outstanding shares to be 440 million for the second-quarter.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report revenues of $2.81 billion for the second-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
For the third-quarter, the company expects unit shipments to increase as compared to the second-quarter, revenue of $4.2 billion -$4.5 billion, gross margin as a percent of revenue of at least 33%, and operating expenses to be approximately $415 million. Analysts expect the company to report revenues of $3.62 billion for the third-quarter.
The outlook for the third-quarter excludes certain costs related to the integration of the acquired Samsung hard disk drive operations which cannot be estimated at this time.
Previously, for the third-quarter, the company expected unit shipments to increase sequentially. Revenue was expected to be at least $3.75 billion and gross margin as a percent of revenue is expected to be at least 300 basis points above the aforementioned targeted range of 22-26%.
The company continues to believe that during calendar 2012 unit demand will exceed supply and combined with the high growth rate in the demand for raw storage, the exabyte shortage will be more pronounced than the unit shortage, and as a result pricing is expected to remain stable.
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