Data General Corp, ended its fiscal year on a high note, posting surprise net income of $3.7m, or $0.07 per share, for a quarter when Wall Street was expecting a net loss of $0.04 per share. The return to profitability came a quarter earlier than analysts, or even the company, expected. Revenue was down 5.0% year-over-year at $383.7m and the earnings don’t look that great when compared to profits of $17.0m, or $0.35 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Still, a solid performance from both the all-Fibre Clariion storage and Aviion server businesses, coupled with the cost savings from the company’s recent restructuring, have made their way to the bottom line. Revenue from the Fibre products, which now account for 40% of the Clariion business, were up 86% over the prior quarter. Revenues for the server business grew 9.0% over the third quarter and the company says its NT business is strong. It now represents about two-thirds of the Intel-based Aviion business, and Data General claims to be the number one vendor for NT systems priced between $100,000 and $1m. Services brought in 35% of total sales at $100.5m. The company’s shares responded to the good news by jumping $3.0625, or nearly 24%, to close at $16.0625 Thursday. They had traded as high as $16.4375 and volume was 3.2 million, compared to an average daily volume of just 366,000.
