EMC cuts outlook for year

EMC, the world’s biggest maker of corporate data storage equipment and software, cut its full-year outlook on Friday in the wake of a profits warning earler in the week.

Shares in the company dipped 4 per cent on the news, adding to an 11 per cent decline on Tuesday after it said earnings in the second quarter would fall below forecasts because of difficulty meeting demand for a new generation of storage products.

EMC said it expected net income of about 51 cents a share for the year, down from its June estimate of 57 cents, on $10.8bn in sales, down from its earlier forecast of $11.1bn.

On Monday, EMC said it expected second-quarter profits of $279m, or 12 cents a share, down from $293 million, or 12 cents a share, last year. That was below the 13 cents a share the company had originally forecast.

“While our execution was not up to our own high standards, our business and customer demand for our products and solutions remain strong,” said Joe Tucci, EMC chairman and chief executive said on Friday. “We know what we need to do to sharpen our execution going forward and will focus our efforts on both EMC’s short-term performance and our company’s long-term growth and opportunity.”

Last month, EMC announced a $2.1bn deal to buy RSA Security, a Boston-based maker of user authentication tokens for managing remote access to corporate computer networks.