For the three months to the end of September, Unisys’ services business unit reported sales of $1.22bn, unchanged from the same period of the previous year. While outsourcing revenue was up, this was balanced out by a fall in infrastructure services and core maintenance sales. Hardware revenue fell 8.8% to $175.5m, dragging total quarterly sales down 1.2% to $1.39bn.
Unisys narrowed its net loss to $31.0m from $77.5m, despite unspecified expenses totalling $19.3m, income tax payments of $36.8m, and pre-tax retirement-related expenses of $22.8m. At an operating level, the company made a profit of $43.6m, compared to a loss of $42.9m in the third quarter of 2006.
Unisys said that growth in services orders had been in low single digits during the third quarter, with gains in outsourcing and infrastructure services ordering, but a fall in both systems integration and consulting and core maintenance orders.
Quarterly US sales fell 5% to $608m, while revenue from the rest of the world grew 2% to $785m. However, on a constant currency basis, international sales were down 4%, largely due to the weakness of the US dollar.
