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Steve Milligan, CEO of Western Digital, states that the flash storage market has bottomed out and storage conditions are now improving. He also sees momentum arising in enterprises for solid state NVMe-drives.

Milligan made his statements at the announcement of Western Digital’s fourth-quarter figures for fiscal year 2019, writes ZDNet. According to Milligan, this year was challenging, but improvements are now visible.

Fourth quarter

In the fourth quarter, the company had a net loss of $ 197 million (178 million euro) or $ 67 cents per share (60 euro cents). Sales amounted to 3.6 billion dollars (3.26 billion euros), compared to 5.1 billion dollars in the same quarter a year earlier. Wall Street had expected a turnover of $3.57 billion. In the fourth quarter of 2018, the company also had a profit of $756 million, or $2.46 per share.

For fiscal year 2019, Western Digital reported a net loss of $754 million (€683 million), or $2.58 per share (€2.34). Turnover was $16.6 billion (15.04 billion euros), compared with $20.6 billion in 2018.

We ended a challenging fiscal 2019, with leading positions in capacity enterprise HDDs, 3D flash technology, and branded retail products, while achieving significant gains in solid state drives for customers, said Milligan.

Better 2020

For the next fiscal year, Milligan is more positive. The momentum for our NVMe solid state drives is picking up and is the web for further profits in our portfolio in the new fiscal year and beyond.

With continued expectations for a positive demand environment, a robust product portfolio and growing sound engagement, we expect to deliver better financial results during fiscal 2020, says the CEO.

The forecast for the first fiscal quarter of 2020 is a turnover between 3.8 billion and 4 billion dollars. Earnings before adjustment are expected to be between 15 and 35 US cents per share.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.