Separate figures for the AdStar disk business and the Integrated Systems Solutions Co facilities management arm in IBM Corp’s annual report, galley proofs of which have just reached some analysts. Adstar reported a loss of $265m on turnover of $6,100m – but the loss was occasioned by the San Jose business’s share of restructuring charges: before those, it made a net profit of $247m, but a return on assets of only 6%. The OEM sales are rather less than had been hoped, just $442m, where Seagate Technology Corp, Quantum Corp, Conner Peripherals Inc and Maxtor Corp all do at least that much in a single quarter. Given how long IBM has now been trying, overall OEM business is also disappointing at $1,200m. Integrated Systems Solutions Corp made a net profit on turnover of just $1,840m, far less than expected, given that $1,180m of that, 64% of the total, was business with other parts of IBM, and that it also includes Advantis, IBM’s communications joint venture with Sears, Roebuck & Co, whose business is mainly serving Sears and IBM. Elsewhere, IBM says that overall turnover was flat in the US, up 5% in Asia, and down in Europe. Personal systems turnover fell 7.3% to $7,890m and sales of disk drives and other storage devices, embracing more than just AdStar, fell 13% to $6,260m. Services were up 32% to $7,350m. IBM Personal Computer Co is not yet in a state to break out its figures, but IBM says that it intends to give figures for all the so-called Baby Blues in the report for 1993.
