Seagate Technology, the leading manufacturer of hard drives and storage solutions, reported revenue of $3.2 billion, gross margin of 31.6 per cent and a net income of $563 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

The company shipped 47 million disk drives during the period, and reported diluted earnings per share of $1.28.

On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes the net impact of certain items, Seagate reported net income of $581 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.32 for the quarter ended December 30, 2011.

For the six months ended December 30, 2011, the company reported revenue of $6.0 billion, gross margin of 26 per cent, net income of $703 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.61.

On a non-GAAP basis, which excludes the net impact of certain items, Seagate reported net income of $727 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.67.

Seagate returned $151 million to shareholders in the form of a dividend and repurchased $191 million of Seagate ordinary shares which equates to approximately 13 million ordinary shares.

Seagate announced on December 19, 2011 the closing of the acquisition of the hard disk drive business of Samsung Electronics. Related to this transaction, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles of $5 million (non-cash expense) is included in the GAAP basis net income for the fiscal second quarter and six months ended December 30, 2011.

For Seagate’s third fiscal quarter, which ends on March 30, 2012, it is expected that amortization of acquisition-related intangibles will be approximately $35 million.

Seagate will hold a conference call to review its second fiscal quarter today (February 2) at 2pm Pacific Time. The conference call will consist of opening comments from Steve Luczo, CEO, followed by a question and answer session with the executive management team.

The company will provide an outlook for its third and fourth fiscal quarters of 2012 and its view of the remainder of the calendar year, including key underlying assumptions. – TradeArabia News Service