Seagate's profits soar as WD suffers downturn


by Cyril Kowaliski — 6:00 AM on February 1, 2012

How is the flooding in Thailand and the resulting shortages affecting the top two players in the hard-drive industry? Now that Seagate and Western Digital have both released their financial results for the holiday quarter, we can do some comparing and contrasting. Here are the Seagate numbers:

   Q2FY11 Q1FY12 Q2FY12
Revenue $2.7 billion $2.8 billion $3.2 billion
Net income $150 million $140 million $563 million
Gross margin 19.5% 19.5% 31.6%
Shipments 49 million 51 million 47 million

...and here's how Western Digital fared. (In case you're wondering, WD's last fiscal quarter ended on December 30, just like Seagate's):

   Q2FY11 Q1FY12 Q2FY12
Revenue $2.5 billion $2.7 billion $2.0 billion
Net income $225 million $239 million $145 million
Gross margin 19.2% 20.1% 32.5%
Shipments 52 million 58 million 29 million

Clearly, Seagate had the better quarter of the two. Not only did it see profits and revenue surge compared to the same quarter a year back, but its hard-drive shipments stayed mostly flat. WD, meanwhile, saw revenue, profits, and shipments fall quite dramatically. Only its gross margin rose—but not enough to make up for the flooding-induced shortages.

According to Dow Jones, Seagate did so well in comparison because its facilities "remained intact" despite the flooding in Thailand. WD wasn't so lucky.

   
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