Plasmon Plc, the Cambridge, UK-based data storage company, is now benefiting from acquisitions that mean it owns virtually the entire 12 inch optical drive market.
In the six months to September 30, net profit increased 173.5% to 465,000 pounds ($748,650) on revenue that rose 61.1% to 33.6m pounds ($54m). Earnings per share rose 56.3% to 1.36 pence.
The acquisition of the high-end storage business of Philips Electronics NV in January (CI No 3,555) completed PlasmonÆs dominance of the 12 inch drive business. It is preparing to upgrade from 12 GB to 30GB in the coming year and managing director Nigel Street says their roadmap runs to 400Gb. In the 5.25 inch segment of the market it runs second to Hewlett Packard, but managed 20% revenue growth.
The one gap at the moment is in the tape side where it inherited an ageing Philips range and is now pulling out of this business at a cost of an 886,000 pound ($1.4m) exceptional charge. Plasmon now plans to launch a new range of libraries for the new LTO tape drives being launched by the IBM, HP and Seagate consortium early next year.
Plasmon is prepared for some slowing of the market as Y2K approaches but is confident of buoyant market in a storage market where it is becoming a significant player.
