Strong PC Market Gives 3rd-Quarter Boost : Revenues Up at Western Digital, AST Research

Buoyed by a strong personal computer market, Western Digital and AST Research on Thursday reported sharply higher revenues for their fiscal third quarters.

Western Digital reported a 35% decline in net income, however, while AST’s profits rebounded 56% from a lackluster quarter a year earlier.

Irvine-based Western Digital reported third-quarter revenue of $190.7 million, up 50% from $127.2 million a year ago. Net income fell 35% to $8.3 million, from $12.8 million a year ago.

Western Digital Chairman Roger W. Johnson said the company is “pleased with the record revenue levels achieved in the third quarter as well as the stabilizing of (profit) margins in the latter part of the quarter.”

Western Digital’s results included $12 million in revenue from the disk-drive business that Western Digital acquired from Chatsworth-based Tandon Corp. on March 3. The disk-drive business had a “break-even” performance during March, the company said.

For the nine months, Western Digital’s net income declined 9% to $28.8 million, from $31.5 million. Sales grew 46% to $491.5 million.

Sales at AST, also based in Irvine, rose 91% to $105.8 million, compared to $55.4 million in the year-earlier period. Net income was $5.2 million, up from $3.4 million in 1987, marking AST’s first year-to-year earnings increase in two years.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, AST’s sales were up 94% to $277 million, from $143 million a year earlier. Net income was $7.3 million, a 28% decrease from $10.2 million last year.

AST President Safi Qureshey credited personal computer sales for the strong revenue gains, noting that computer systems now account for two-thirds of company revenues. AST entered the personal computer market 15 months ago.

“We are now firmly established as one of the leading brand-name manufacturers in the personal computer marketplace,” Qureshey said.