EMC Corp complains that difficult mainframe storage pricing hurt revenues and earnings in the third quarter, which came in at $0.31 a share, fully diluted, up just a penny on this time last year. This was due primarily to delays in competitors’ product introductions and a greater concentration of sales activity toward the end of the quarter than we normally experience, which also impacted our balance sheet, said president and chief executive of the Hopkinton, Massachusetts company Michael Ruettgers. Third quarter sales were up 16.5% at $432.7m. It was a tough quarter. Pricing declined faster than expected, Ruettgers said on a conference call, but he also said that demand hit record levels and EMC has a backlog of orders for its open systems line. For the year, we expect to finish very strong, he said, adding that EMC’s open systems business continues to grow rapidly and it remains on course to reach its stated goal of having $200m in open systems revenue in the current year. EMC’s open systems products were about $10m in 1994 sales with the first launched in November.
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