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IBM Outlook Good Sign for EMS |
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Written by Mike Buetow
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Thursday, 17 April 2008 |
ARMONK,
NY -- IBM's
systems revenue rose
2% in the first quarter versus a year ago,
providing some hope for the company's EMS suppliers.
Hardware revenue was
down 7% year-over-year to $4.2 billion.
Excluding printers and microelectronics, revenue was up 2% versus a year ago. Storage and System z (IBM's mainframe
computing) segments were each up 10%.
Among IBM's key EMS
suppliers, Celestica and Benchmark Electronics
have the largest exposure to the computing giant's ups and
downs.
According to
Deutsche Bank, sales to IBM makes up 7
to 10% of revenue for Celestica and
Benchmark, and about 2 to 4% of Flextronics' and Jabil's
revenues.
Celestica and Flextronics are believed to build storage systems for IBM,
Celestica through IBM's System
p and i midrange servers, and Flextronics in high-end servers. Jabil also
builds some midrange servers.
"Positive
comments on IT spending bode well for the
EMS industry," said DB analyst Sherri
Scribner in a research note.
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