Digital Equipment Corp announced its third quarter figures yesterday – net profit of $116m, $0.94 a share, and sent Wall Street into a tiswas – although the figures were worse than expected – the median view was $1.06 a share, so many people were clamouring to buy that the shares opened late: the previous close was at $66.625 and the shares opened at $73.50, a 10% gain. Analysts pointed out that the company curbed the growth in operating costs, earned better-than-expected revenue from services and saw its earnings pulled down by consolidating its majority 65% stake in Mannesmann-Kienzle GmbH. DEC itself said it had made good progress in lowering expenses, consolidating facilities and restructuring its workforce – during the quarter 2,200 employees left DEC through attrition and voluntary redundancy programmes. Turnover from the new Digital-Kienzle was $79m and taking out losses at the German firm, earnings per share would have come out at $1.14; MIPStation sales doubled from a year ago.
