EMC Software to Run on Rival Machines

EMC Corp. today will unveil its first software that runs on data-storage machines from rivals, which may hurt the company’s hardware sales and boost competition with Veritas Software Corp., analysts said.

Cost-conscious customers may use EMC software with cheaper machines from rivals such as IBM Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., analysts said. EMC’s refrigerator-size machines can cost several million dollars.

More than half of EMC’s sales come from hardware and about 20% from software. Hardware profit is falling as companies, including IBM and Hitachi, cut prices to try to take sales from EMC, the market leader. EMC Chief Executive Joseph Tucci wants to increase software to 30% of sales by 2003 by developing and acquiring programs because their profit margins are more than twice as wide as those for hardware.

Shares of Hopkinton, Mass.-based EMC have fallen 79% this year after being the second-best performer in the 1990s in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, behind Dell Computer Corp. EMC rose 19 cents to $13.41 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.