Wall Street almost unanimously swallowed Tandem Computers Inc’s year-end report as a
strong fourth quarter. In fact the numbers show net profit was down 14.4% at $16.9m. That’s after an $11m charge to write off capitalized software as research and development, and losses from its discontinued UB Networks Inc of $23.2m this time, $3.3m last. Revenue fell 0.6% at $543.2m. Net loss for the year to September 30 was $22.7m, struck after a $52m pre-tax restructuring charge and a $17.3m loss from discontinued operations, against a profit last time of $107.5m which included an $11.1m gain from discontinued UB Networks. Revenue slipped 1.1% at $1.9bn while net earnings per share fell 18% to $0.14 in the quarter. Tandem says its strongest business segments in the quarter were shipments of its massively parallel Himalayas to the wireless communications industry and sales of its Integrity S4000 Unix line. It added 80 new customers in the period. In the year, 40% of revenue came from the communications industries, 34% from financials, 5% from wholesale and retail distribution, 3% government, 9% manufacturing, 5% services, 3% transport and 1% other. The US accounted for 49% of revenue, rest of the Americas 4%, Europe 28%, Japan 11% and A sia/Pacific 7%. Headcount was flat at 7,992. Admitting it wasn’t a great Unix year, president and CEO Roel Pieper said Unix revenue isn’t at 1995 levels when it represented 20% of the business. Tandem shares put on $0.37 on the day to reach $12.37 at close.
