The company generated $505 million in cash from operations during the December quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of $3.1 billion.
"We are pleased to deliver better-than-expected revenues, profitability and gross margin in the December quarter, reflecting solid execution and an improvement in hard drive industry conditions compared with the prior two quarters," said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer. "The opportunity for profitable growth in our industry remains tremendous and we are committed to improving our financial performance over the longer term. We plan to do so with a continued emphasis on our industry-leading low-cost structure, high quality, highly reliable and highly available products, and a sharp focus on matching production with true customer demand."
The investment community conference call to discuss these results will be broadcast live over the Internet today at 3 p.m. PST/6 p.m. EST. The call will be accessible live and on an archived basis via the link below. The company is publishing an expanded investor summary sheet today on the investor relations section of its Web site. After the conclusion of today's webcast conference call, the summary sheet will be updated to reflect the company's guidance.
Audio webcast: www.westerndigital.com/... Click on "Conference Calls"
Telephone replay: 888-568-0891 (toll free)
+1-402-998-1567 (international)
This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning opportunities for growth in the industry and WD's financial performance. The foregoing forward-looking statements are based on WD's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including: the impact of continued uncertainty and volatility in global economic conditions; supply and demand conditions in the hard drive industry; actions by competitors; unexpected advances in competing technologies; uncertainties related to the development and introduction of products based on new technologies and expansion into new data storage markets; business conditions and growth in the various hard drive markets; pricing trends and fluctuations in average selling prices; changes in the availability and cost of commodity materials and specialized product components that WD does not make internally; and other risks and uncertainties listed in WD's recent Form 10-Q filed with the SEC Oct. 29, 2010, to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.
Western Digital, WD, and the WD logo are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.