Stratus Computer Inc, Marlborough, Massachusetts fault-tolerant systems builder, says it looks forward to continued strong performance in the current quarter and reckons 1997 will be a very good year. It saw a better-than-expected first quarter, with net income up 40% at $14.8m – or $0.62 a share, on sales of $155.7m where analysts had it down for an average of only $0.49 a share. Stratus said product revenues grew 17% – 15% in hardware revenues and 31% growth in the still relatively tiny application software licensing revenues. Stratus has got over IBM Corp’s defection and reports that indirect reseller channels all did better, especially NEC Corp, which delivered 33% more revenue than in the fourth quarter and 81% more than it in the year-ago period. Sales in financial services were strong, up 38%, telecommunications were up 58%, which suggests the company is helping itself to some of Tandem Computers Inc’s lunch.
