甲骨文 (ORCL) 2005 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day everyone and welcome to the StorageTek first quarter 2005 financial results conference call. This call is being recorded. At this time for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to the Interim Director of Investor Relations, Ms. Dana Johnson. Please go ahead, ma'am.

各位大家好，歡迎參加 StorageTek 2005 年第一季財務結果電話會議。本通話將被錄音。現在進行開場致詞與介紹，我想把電話交給投資人關係代理總監 Dana Johnson 女士。女士，請開始。

Thank you Carol. Good afternoon and welcome to StorageTek's first quarter 2005 earnings call. With me today is Pat Martin, StorageTek's Chairman, President and CEO, and Bobby Kocol, StorageTek's, Chief Financial Officer. Hopefully you've already received copies of our earnings release, if not, please call us at 303-673-5950 or check our website at www.storagetek.com.

謝謝你，Carol。各位下午好，歡迎參加 StorageTek 2005 年第一季財報電話會議。今天與我一同出席的有 StorageTek 董事長、總裁暨執行長 Pat Martin，以及 StorageTek 財務長 Bobby Kocol。希望各位已收到我們的財報新聞稿；若尚未收到，請致電 303-673-5950，或至我們的網站 www.storagetek.com 查詢。

Before we start, let me remind you that during the course of this conference call we may provide information, which constitutes forward-looking statements, including statements regarding future events. Actual results may differ materially. Any forward-looking statements that we make today are subject to risks and uncertainties, as described in the company's reports on form 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K that are filed with the SEC and the 10-Q for the first quarter 2005 once it has been filed. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Pat Martin.

在開始之前，先提醒各位，在本次電話會議過程中，我們可能會提供構成前瞻性陳述的資訊，包括關於未來事件的陳述。實際結果可能會有重大差異。我們今天所做的任何前瞻性陳述均受風險與不確定性影響，如公司向美國證券交易委員會（SEC）提交的 10-K、10-Q 與 8-K 報告，以及 2005 年第一季 10-Q（一旦提交）中所述。現在，我想把電話交給 Pat Martin。

Thank you, Dana. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I'll make a few opening remarks and then I'll turn it over to Bobby who will cover some of the additional financial information and our first quarter performance. By now I'm sure you've had the opportunity to read our earnings release. We generated just under $500 million in revenue and earned $0.22 per share up from $0.21 per share in the same period of last year. While we grew our profits on a year-over-year basis, this is not the quarter that we expected to deliver.

謝謝你，Dana。各位下午好，感謝各位今天加入我們。我先做幾點開場說明，接著把電話交給 Bobby，他將補充一些財務資訊並說明我們第一季的表現。我相信各位現在應該已經有機會閱讀我們的財報新聞稿。我們創造了略低於 5 億美元的營收，每股盈餘為 0.22 美元，高於去年同期的每股 0.21 美元。雖然我們的獲利較去年同期成長，但這並不是我們原本預期要交出的季度表現。

You will recall that we had a very strong fourth quarter, one that substantially exceeded expectations, for those internally and those in the financial community. As a result, we entered this year with a backlog and pipeline of business prospects that was significantly smaller than a year ago. However, we felt that with our new products we were well positioned to rebuild the pipeline and deliver a strong Q1. And indeed, that was the case in the early part of the quarter. As we entered the last few weeks of the quarter we had enough deals that were far enough along that we were still expecting to deliver results that were more in line with our own expectations. Obviously, that didn't happen.

各位會記得，我們第四季表現非常強勁，無論是公司內部或金融界人士的預期，我們都大幅超越。因此，我們在今年年初的未交訂單（backlog）與商機管道（pipeline）明顯小於一年前。不過，我們認為憑藉新產品，我們具備重建商機管道並交出強勁第一季的良好條件。事實上，在本季前段確實如此。進入本季最後幾週時，我們手上已有足夠且進展到一定程度的案子，因此仍預期能交出更符合我們自身預期的結果。顯然，結果並非如此。

The good news is that we did not lose transactions. Instead, they were delayed or pushed out to later quarters. And we find that we were not unique in this situation. As evidenced by several others in our industry, many customers in the quarter delayed purchases for a variety of reasons. I must add that the transactions that we were involved with at the end of the quarter is not business that we lost, it is business that we now must go out and close in the current and following quarters.

好消息是，我們並沒有失去交易。相反地，這些交易被延後或推遲到後續季度。而且我們發現，遇到這種情況的不只我們一家。從同業中數家公司的情況可見，許多客戶在本季因各種原因延後採購。我必須補充，我們在季末所參與的交易並不是我們失去的業務，而是我們現在必須在本季及接下來幾季持續推進並完成成交的業務。

Having said that, our current backlog and pipeline positions have improved from the start of the first quarter of the year and they have improved from the second quarter of last year. And we expect to deliver better results for the remainder of the year. That is, we expect to return to year-over-year revenue growth in the second quarter and get back to delivering the earnings growth we anticipated coming into the year.

話雖如此，我們目前的未交訂單與商機管道狀況，較今年第一季初已有改善，也較去年第二季有所改善。我們預期今年剩餘期間將交出更好的結果。也就是說，我們預期第二季將恢復年對年營收成長，並回到年初所預期的獲利成長軌道。

In addition, there were a significant amount of positive results that we delivered in the first quarter that should not be overlooked. Our services business continues to perform well. Service revenue was up 6% for the quarter, and we continue to grow our professional services expertise, which delivered double-digit revenue growth in the quarter. We continued to see a lot of opportunity in the services area.

此外，我們在第一季也交出了不少正面成果，不應被忽略。我們的服務業務持續表現良好。本季服務營收成長 6%，而我們也持續擴充專業服務能力，本季帶來兩位數的營收成長。我們在服務領域仍看到大量機會。

Our customers look to our professional services as a key enabler and a key component required to successfully integrate and implement an information lifecycle management solution. We believe that the addressable markets will continue to be primary storage, data protection and archival requirements. We are beginning to see the disruption in the primary storage market as new technologies come to market. Through our existing offerings and those that will be coming out throughout the year, we are enabling our customers to make back up and recovery simple and reliable.

客戶將我們的專業服務視為成功整合與導入資訊生命週期管理（ILM）解決方案的關鍵推動力與必要組成。我們相信，可觸及的市場將持續以主儲存（primary storage）、資料保護與歸檔需求為主。隨著新技術進入市場，我們開始看到主儲存市場的變動與衝擊。透過我們現有的產品，以及今年將陸續推出的產品，我們正協助客戶讓備份與復原變得簡單且可靠。

As corporations identify and establish long-term archival policies and requirements, we bring hardware and software services that support them in this process. Customers are adopting technologies and services in ways they never have before. We won several new accounts in the first quarter due in large part to our ILM solutions. As an example one large medical instruments systems provider chose a StorageTek ILM solution including our SL8500, FlexLine disk and professional services.

當企業辨識並建立長期歸檔政策與需求時，我們提供支援其流程的硬體、軟體與服務。客戶正以前所未有的方式採用技術與服務。第一季我們贏得了數個新客戶，主要歸功於我們的 ILM 解決方案。例如，一家大型醫療儀器系統供應商選擇了 StorageTek 的 ILM 解決方案，其中包含我們的 SL8500、FlexLine 磁碟以及專業服務。

The customer consolidated three competitor libraries into a single SL8500 and chose the SL8500 because of its redundancy features. Revenue from our automated tape solutions continued to be strong and was up 70% from the first quarter of last year. Our SL8500 high-end library and our SL500 midrange library both are gaining widespread market acceptance.

該客戶將三家競爭對手的磁帶櫃整併為單一一套 SL8500，並因其備援功能而選擇 SL8500。我們的自動化磁帶解決方案營收持續強勁，較去年第一季成長 70%。我們的 SL8500 高階磁帶櫃與 SL500 中階磁帶櫃皆正獲得市場廣泛接受。

During the first quarter we surpassed our 500th SL500 modular library system shipped. Customers are using this system to archive and protect their business critical information. And the SL500 was also named Datamation's 2005 product of the year. Our automated tape solutions are the preferred solutions of choice for data protection and archiving in the mid range, and especially, the high-end compute environments. One customer, a major financial services customer was struggling to migrate from a mainframe to an open systems environment.

第一季期間，我們出貨的 SL500 模組化磁帶櫃系統累計已超過第 500 套。客戶使用此系統來歸檔並保護其關鍵業務資訊。SL500 也獲選為 Datamation 2005 年度產品。在中階，尤其是在高階運算環境中，我們的自動化磁帶解決方案是資料保護與歸檔的首選方案。其中一位客戶——一家大型金融服務客戶——正苦於從大型主機（mainframe）遷移到開放系統環境。

Continual upgrades to the main frame resulted an increasingly higher costs. The customer purchased two SL8500's with drives and our professional services team not only helped the customer reduce backup time, but reduced cost as well. This is just one example in the quarter where the Stream Line library saved the customer time and money, while we made backup and recovery simpler, more predictable and more reliable.

對大型主機的持續升級導致成本不斷攀升。該客戶購買了兩套 SL8500（含磁帶機），而我們的專業服務團隊不僅協助客戶縮短備份時間，也降低了成本。這只是本季其中一個例子：StreamLine 磁帶櫃為客戶節省時間與金錢，同時讓我們的備份與復原更簡單、更可預測且更可靠。

As we look forward throughout the year, we'll be delivering enhancements to automation and VSM product lines and will launch our next generation tape drive and archive software solution. With our current product line and these new offerings, we'll continue to distance ourselves from the competition, which should translate into improved revenue performance.

展望今年，我們將為自動化與 VSM 產品線推出功能強化，並將發表下一代磁帶機與歸檔軟體解決方案。憑藉現有產品線與這些新產品，我們將持續拉開與競爭對手的差距，這應可轉化為更佳的營收表現。

The RD&E investments that we've made over the past few years have produced the steady stream of new solutions for our customers. Solutions that have spanned the total storage spectrum from tape to automation to our ILM offerings. This year we're maintaining the pace of our traditional new product introductions, refreshing our product line and introducing next generation storage solutions.

我們過去幾年所進行的研發（RD&E）投資，已為客戶帶來穩定的新解決方案推出節奏。這些解決方案涵蓋整體儲存光譜，從磁帶、到自動化、到我們的 ILM 產品。今年我們將維持傳統的新產品導入速度，更新產品線並推出下一代儲存解決方案。

Our disk revenue declined a disappointing 27% from the first quarter of 2004. Clearly, part of the transactions that were pushed out of the quarter included some of our ILM solutions. Here again, this is more pipeline than anything else. However, our customers continue to recognize they need an additional tier of storage with price performance characteristics that bridge the gap between disk and tape. We revenued 45% more Bladestore in this quarter than we did in Q1 of last year. Our Bladestore is being selected as part of the solution in a variety of environments and for a variety of applications, such as disk to disk backup recovery, which is primarily targeted to customers who are having shrinking backup windows. Bladestore gives them the opportunity to do a two-stage backup, moving their backup to ATA very rapidly, and then on to tape. Going forward throughout the year, we'll be bringing out our new ATA product offering and new ILM software solutions, and thus, we're expecting stronger performance in this business area in the quarters ahead.

我們的磁碟營收較 2004 年第一季令人失望地下滑了 27%。顯然，被延後到下一季入帳的部分交易中，包含了我們的一些 ILM 解決方案。同樣地，這更多是管線（pipeline）問題，而非其他因素。然而，我們的客戶持續認知到，他們需要一個額外的儲存層級，其價格／效能特性可彌補磁碟與磁帶之間的落差。本季我們的 Bladestore 營收較去年第一季增加了 45%。Bladestore 正在各式環境與各種應用中被選為解決方案的一部分，例如磁碟對磁碟的備份復原，主要鎖定備份窗口縮短的客戶。Bladestore 讓他們有機會進行兩階段備份：先非常快速地將備份移至 ATA，之後再移至磁帶。展望今年接下來的時間，我們將推出新的 ATA 產品方案與新的 ILM 軟體解決方案，因此我們預期未來幾季在此業務領域將有更強勁的表現。

In the quarter we had a couple of wins in our open systems disk business that I would like to talk about. The first transaction was with the federal government for disk and networking components. We were able to compete and win this business based on our ability to combine our Flexline disk subsystem, along with a high-performance file system. The agency had rigid demands for data sharing and data movement across a large enterprise storage environment and SAN infrastructure. In another transaction we won a major surveillance opportunity with the Canadian government. By partnering with a surveillance software solutions firm, we were able to provide a complete solution, using a FlexLine 280 to provide a cost effective and reliable infrastructure on which to store this data with the ability to have a rapid recall when needed. In the second phase of this implementation, the customer will be adding back-end tape archive to accomplish the long-term storage requirements of this data. Our ability to provide a complete ILM solution that will manage data from creation to destruction was critical in our ability to win this deal.

本季我們在開放系統磁碟業務上有幾個勝利案例，我想談一談。第一筆交易是與聯邦政府合作，提供磁碟與網路元件。我們能夠競爭並贏得此業務，係基於我們能將 Flexline 磁碟子系統與高效能檔案系統加以整合的能力。該機構對於在大型企業儲存環境與 SAN 基礎架構中進行資料共享與資料移動有嚴格需求。在另一筆交易中，我們與加拿大政府贏得一個重大監控專案機會。透過與一家監控軟體解決方案公司合作，我們得以提供完整解決方案，使用 FlexLine 280 提供具成本效益且可靠的基礎架構來儲存這些資料，並在需要時具備快速調閱能力。在此導入的第二階段，客戶將新增後端磁帶歸檔，以滿足這些資料的長期儲存需求。我們提供完整 ILM 解決方案、可管理資料從建立到銷毀的能力，是我們贏得此案的關鍵。

Coming off a very strong fourth quarter and anticipating a continuing strong IT spend in the first quarter, we made investments and expanded our sales channel. This hiring actually started towards the end of last year. Over the last two quarters, we added over 80 quality people to our sales force around the world. As these employees become more familiar with our products and services, we expect as to be productive towards the end of the year.

在第四季表現非常強勁、並預期第一季 IT 支出將持續強勁的情況下，我們進行了投資並擴大了銷售通路。這項招募其實在去年年底就已開始。在過去兩季，我們在全球銷售團隊新增了 80 多位優秀人才。隨著這些員工對我們的產品與服務更加熟悉，我們預期他們將在今年年底前後開始展現生產力。

We also filled some key executive positions in the year. We hired Brenda Zawatski as Vice President and General Manager of information life cycle management solutions. Her background is an ideal fit to help our customers look for ways to achieve primary storage efficiency, simplifyand automate their backup and recovery processes, and create flexible compliance and archiving architecture. Prior to joining us, Brenda was Vice President of product and solutions marketing for VERITAS Software, where she was responsible for product and solutions strategy, market/customer segmentation, marketing campaigns and product launches. Her wealth of experience and product management leadership skills will be a major asset to strengthen our market focus and accelerate growth. Prior to VERITAS, Brenda built a distinguished 20-year career at IBM.

我們也在今年補足了一些關鍵的高階主管職位。我們聘請 Brenda Zawatski 擔任資訊生命週期管理（ILM）解決方案事業部副總裁暨總經理。她的背景非常契合，可協助客戶尋找提升主要儲存效率、簡化並自動化備份與復原流程，以及建立具彈性的法遵與歸檔架構的方法。加入我們之前，Brenda 曾任 VERITAS Software 產品與解決方案行銷副總裁，負責產品與解決方案策略、市場／客戶區隔、行銷活動與產品上市。她豐富的經驗與產品管理領導能力，將成為強化我們市場聚焦並加速成長的重要資產。在加入 VERITAS 之前，Brenda 在 IBM 建立了卓越的 20 年職涯。

In addition to Brenda, we recently hired Nigel Dessau to the position of Chief Marketing Officer, where he'll be responsible for all aspects of the company's marketing, communication and branding efforts. Nigel has spent nearly 20 years in sales, marketing and executive management positions at IBM, in both the US and Europe. And most recently was Vice President of the Virtualization Solutions Systems and technology group.

除 Brenda 之外，我們近期也聘請 Nigel Dessau 擔任行銷長（Chief Marketing Officer），他將負責公司行銷、溝通與品牌推廣的各個面向。Nigel 在 IBM 的美國與歐洲地區，於銷售、行銷與高階管理職務累積了近 20 年經驗。而他最近的職務是虛擬化解決方案系統與技術事業群副總裁。

Also, John Kitlen has joined us as Director of Internal Audit. He came from Level 3 Communications where he led their internal audit function. John is a CPAand began his career at Deloitte Touche.

此外，John Kitlen 也加入我們，擔任內部稽核總監。他來自 Level 3 Communications，並在那裡領導其內部稽核職能。John 是一名 CPA，並在 Deloitte Touche 展開其職涯。

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that for the fourth consecutive year, "Fortune" magazine has named StorageTek number one in the computer peripheral category in their annual ranking of America's most admired companies. This is a great tribute not only to the employees of StorageTek, but also, to our customers and partners, who have contributed to our ongoing success.

如果我不提到這件事就太失禮了：連續第四年，《Fortune》雜誌在其年度「美國最受推崇公司」評比中，將 StorageTek 評為電腦周邊類別第一名。這不僅是對 StorageTek 員工的高度肯定，也同樣是對我們的客戶與合作夥伴的致敬；正是他們共同促成了我們持續的成功。

As I reflect on the quarter, it is clear that the IT market is choppy, as it has been for the past few years now. While customers are more optimistic, they continue to be cautious. Having said this, I expect that the IT environment will improve throughout the year. Of the many customers I've met with throughout the quarter, most were more optimistic than they were a year ago. However, the majority are still telling me that they haven't seen any real growth in their budgets. These sentiments were recently substantiated by a recent IDC survey. Our customers continue to try to do more within their existing spending limits and with our information life cycle management strategy, is singularly focused on helping them manage exponential data growth while lowering costs and enhancing the efficiency of their overall storage operations.

回顧本季，可以清楚看出 IT 市場仍然起伏不定，正如過去幾年一樣。儘管客戶更為樂觀，他們仍持續保持謹慎。話雖如此，我預期 IT 環境將在今年逐步改善。在本季我所會面的眾多客戶中，多數人比一年前更為樂觀。然而，大多數仍告訴我，他們的預算尚未看到任何實質成長。這些觀點近期也被 IDC 的一項調查所證實。我們的客戶持續嘗試在既有支出上限內做得更多；而我們的資訊生命週期管理策略，專注於協助他們在降低成本並提升整體儲存營運效率的同時，管理指數型成長的資料量。

As I look to the remainder of the year, I'm optimistic. As I said, we're entering the quarter with a stronger backlog and pipeline than we started the year with. We will be bringing out new products and product enhancements in our tape drive, our tape automation, our ATA family, our virtualization products for both open and MVS, and our ILM software suite. These products and enhancements will continue to strengthen our position in the marketplace, while we continue to expand our addressable markets. More importantly, they match the current IT environment, where customer needs are increasing, as their budgets are shrinking. Through our expanded services offerings and cutting edge technologies, we have an opportunity to position ourselves as the premier partner with our customers.

展望今年剩餘時間，我保持樂觀。如我所說，我們進入本季時的在手訂單（backlog）與銷售管線（pipeline）都比年初更強。我們將在磁帶機、磁帶自動化、ATA 產品家族、同時支援開放系統與 MVS 的虛擬化產品，以及 ILM 軟體套件方面推出新產品與產品強化。這些產品與強化將在我們持續擴大可服務市場的同時，進一步鞏固我們在市場中的地位。更重要的是，它們符合當前 IT 環境：客戶需求增加，但預算卻在縮減。透過我們擴充的服務方案與尖端技術，我們有機會將自身定位為客戶的首選合作夥伴。

Similar to other companies in our industry, we experienced a more cautious IT spending environment in the first quarter than we expected coming into the year. While we believe the overall environment as well as our own circumstances with new product releases will improve as the year progresses, taking into account our first quarter results, it would be prudent to adjust our revenue growth expectations for the year to be in the 2 to 4% range over last year's results. However, even with this slight decline in our revenue forecast for the year, we still expect to deliver around $260 million of pretax income for the full year. At this time I'd like to turn it over to Bobby Kocol.

與本產業其他公司類似，我們在第一季所面臨的 IT 支出環境比年初預期更為保守。雖然我們相信整體環境以及我們自身因新產品推出所帶來的情況，將隨著年度推進而改善，但考量第一季的結果，較為審慎的作法是將今年的營收成長預期調整為較去年成績增加 2% 至 4% 的區間。然而，即使我們對全年營收預測略為下修，我們仍預期全年可達成約 2.6 億美元的稅前利益。此刻我想把時間交給 Bobby Kocol。

Thank you, Pat. In order to provide additional insight into our first quarter, let me take a little time to go over some of our results in more detail. First quarter revenues of 499 million resulted in earnings of $0.22 per diluted share, a slight improvement over Q1 of last year. Product sales in the first quarter were 266 million, made up of 212 million in tape sales, 32 million in disk, and 22 million in network and other sales. Service revenues increased to 233 million, an increase of 6% over Q1 of last year.

謝謝你，Pat。為了對我們第一季的表現提供更多洞見，我想花一點時間更詳細地說明部分結果。第一季營收為 4.99 億美元，稀釋後每股盈餘為 0.22 美元，較去年第一季略有改善。第一季產品銷售為 2.66 億美元，其中包含磁帶銷售 2.12 億美元、磁碟 3,200 萬美元，以及網路與其他銷售 2,200 萬美元。服務營收增加至 2.33 億美元，較去年第一季成長 6%。

Geographically, North America represented about 46% of the total worldwide revenue, Europe, approximately 39%, with the Pacific Rimand Latin America making up the rest. On a year-over-year basis, North American revenues were down 8%, European revenues down 1%. Asia was down 8%, while Latin American revenues were up 29%. Overall on a consolidated basis, excluding our hedging activities currency impacts were favorable to revenue on a year-over-year basis by about three points. Most of the revenue shortfall we experienced was due to direct sales transactions that have been pushed out into subsequent quarters. As a result of that, our total product sales were skewed to a higher percentage of indirect sales, which represented about 57% of the total. But going forward, we see this getting back to more traditional splits with indirect sales being around 45 to 50% of the total.

從地理區域來看，北美約占全球總營收的 46%，歐洲約 39%，其餘則由環太平洋地區與拉丁美洲構成。以年對年來看，北美營收下滑 8%，歐洲營收下滑 1%。亞洲下滑 8%，而拉丁美洲營收成長 29%。整體以合併基礎來看，排除我們避險活動後，匯率影響對年對年營收約有三個百分點的正面貢獻。我們所經歷的大部分營收缺口，主要是因為部分直銷交易被延後至後續季度。因此，我們的總產品銷售結構偏向較高比例的間接銷售，約占總額的 57%。但展望未來，我們預期將回到較傳統的分配，間接銷售約占總額的 45% 至 50%。

Working down the P&L, most of the key financial metrics remain very solid. Total gross margins in the quarter were 47%, an increase of 70 basis points from Q1 of last year. Product margins exceeded 50%, an improvement of 140 basis points over last year, mostly due to a product mix skewed toward more tape automation and virtual software sales.

沿著損益表往下看，多數關鍵財務指標仍相當穩健。本季總毛利率為 47%，較去年第一季提高 70 個基點。產品毛利率超過 50%，較去年改善 140 個基點，主要因產品組合偏向更多磁帶自動化與虛擬軟體銷售。

Our efforts in driving operationa, efficiencies and ongoing cost reduction activities have continued, and clearly contributed to the strength we had in product margins. As we mentioned on our earnings call last quarter, the upcoming year will be somewhat different than prior years with respect to product margins. While the first quarter was somewhat of an aberration regarding product margins, keep in mind many of the offerings we are bringing to the market this year are aimed at the small and medium business segments. So as we sell more tape and disk solutions into the SMB space and do this through our indirect channels, where we typically achieve lower margins on a percentage basis, there should be downward pressure at the product margin level. In light of that, we are anticipating annualized product margins to be flat or perhaps slightly below last year's levels. As the revenue mix develops throughout the year, we should be able to get a clearer picture of how this will work out.

我們在推動營運效率與持續成本降低活動方面的努力仍在延續，並且明顯促成了產品毛利率的強勁表現。如同我們在上季法說會提到的，接下來一年在產品毛利率方面將與以往年度略有不同。雖然第一季的產品毛利率在某種程度上屬於異常值，但請記住，我們今年推向市場的許多產品，目標是中小企業（SMB）市場。因此，當我們在 SMB 領域銷售更多磁帶與磁碟解決方案，且透過我們的間接通路進行（我們通常在百分比上取得較低毛利），產品毛利率層面將面臨下行壓力。基於此，我們預期年化產品毛利率將持平，或可能略低於去年的水準。隨著全年營收組合的演變，我們應能更清楚掌握最終結果會如何呈現。

Service margins for the quarter were 43%, an increase of 50 basis points year-over-year. We continued to see solid performance in this area. Together, product support and multi-vendor system support together grew 4% year-over-year. And as expected, our professional services revenue grew 15% over Q1 of last year, and increased to12% of the total services revenue. The mix of services should continue to shift to more professional services, which carry lower gross margins. So while we are slightly ahead of our guidance on service margins after the first quarter results, it is still appropriate to assume annualized service margins will be relatively flat compared to last year's levels. Combining both products and services, total gross margins should be flat, to slightly down for the full year.

本季服務毛利率為 43%，年對年增加 50 個基點。我們在此領域持續看到穩健表現。其中，產品支援與多廠牌系統支援合計年對年成長 4%。且如預期，我們的專業服務營收較去年第一季成長 15%，並提升至占總服務營收的 12%。服務組合應會持續朝向更多專業服務移動，而專業服務的毛利率較低。因此，雖然第一季結果使我們的服務毛利率略優於指引，但仍適合假設年化服務毛利率將相對持平於去年的水準。合併產品與服務後，全年總毛利率預期將持平至小幅下滑。

Total operating expenses for the first quarter were 212 million, relatively flat to last year. R&D expenditures were 47 million, while SG&A expenses were 165 million. First quarter R&D expenditures were lighter than anticipated as prototype material for new product launches were minimal. With significant product launch activity on the forefront, we anticipate R&D expenditures to climb back to the $50 million range per quarter. SG&A expenses where very close to last years levels and our guidance of SG&A being around 28% for the full year remains intact. Net interest income added approximately 7 million to pretax earnings, and finally, shifts in the income projections through our international operations should allow our annual effective tax rate to be around 21%, slightly better than we anticipated, although immaterial to this quarter's results.

第一季總營業費用為 2.12 億美元，與去年大致持平。研發支出為 4,700 萬美元，而銷售、一般及行政（SG&A）費用為 1.65 億美元。第一季研發支出低於預期，因新產品上市所需的原型材料支出很少。隨著大量產品上市活動即將展開，我們預期研發支出將回升至每季約 5,000 萬美元的區間。SG&A 費用非常接近去年的水準，而我們對全年 SG&A 約占 28% 的指引仍維持不變。淨利息收入為稅前盈餘增加約 700 萬美元；最後，透過我們國際營運的所得預估變動，應可使全年有效稅率約為 21%，略優於我們先前預期，但對本季結果影響不大。

The balance sheet and financial strength of StorageTek continue to remain solid. Cash and investment balances are approaching $1.2 billion. This includes us investing another 57 million in the first quarter through the repurchase of roughly 1.8 million shares of our stock. At this pace, we would exhaust the current share repurchase authorization somewhere near the middle of next year. Cash flow from operations was $52 million for the quarter. DSO at 79 days is six days better than Q1 of last year. Using the average accounts receivable balance during the quarter, instead of the ending balance, which is skewed by end of quarter shipments, DSO's were 64 days. Inventory levels were $134million and inventory turns were just under four.

StorageTek 的資產負債表與財務實力仍然穩健。現金與投資餘額接近 12 億美元。其中包括我們在第一季透過回購約 180 萬股自家股票，另行投資 5,700 萬美元。以此速度，我們將在明年年中左右用罄目前的庫藏股回購授權額度。本季營運活動現金流為 5,200 萬美元。應收帳款週轉天數（DSO）為 79 天，較去年第一季改善 6 天。若以本季平均應收帳款餘額（而非期末餘額，期末餘額會受季末出貨影響而偏高）計算，DSO 為 64 天。存貨水位為 1.34 億美元，存貨週轉率略低於 4 次。

Head count was just above 7100 at the end of the quarter. We had about 50 additions during the first quarter, mostly in sales, service and engineering. In the quarter, capital expenditures were 20 million, while depreciation and amortization was just over 18 million, both on target for what we anticipated for the year.

本季末員工人數略高於 7,100 人。第一季新增約 50 人，主要在銷售、服務與工程部門。本季資本支出為 2,000 萬美元，而折舊與攤銷略高於 1,800 萬美元，兩者皆符合我們對全年預期的目標。

In summary, it was a challenging quarter, and while it's one that puts us slightly behind where we wanted to be at the end of the first quarter, we believe there are steps we can take in order to get back on track going forward. Granted, there are uncertainties that still exist with the macro economic environment. But we will continue driving operational disciplines and take the necessary steps to achieve consistent and improving results.

總結來說，這是一個充滿挑戰的季度；雖然使我們在第一季末略落後於原先期望的位置，但我們相信可以採取一些措施，讓後續重新回到正軌。當然，總體經濟環境仍存在不確定性。但我們將持續推動營運紀律，並採取必要步驟，以達成穩定且持續改善的成果。

As Pat said, with Q1 behind us we're going to assume a range of 2 to 4% revenue growth for the year. But we still believe at these levels, we can generate pretax income in a range of around $260 million. After tax, this should provide an increase in earnings per share close to 10% over the prior year. The new products we have brought to market thus far are having great success. And yet, we have a significant number of new product offerings that we plan to bring to market in the current and subsequent quarters. That, coupled with the growing service expertise we have, which allows us to solve the complex storage issues our customers face gives us much to look forward to in the upcoming quarters. With that, I'll turn it back to Dana and we'll open it up for some Q&A.

如 Pat 所說，第一季已經過去，我們將假設全年營收成長區間為 2% 到 4%。但我們仍相信在這樣的水準下，可產生約 2.6 億美元的稅前盈餘。稅後而言，這應可使每股盈餘較前一年增加接近 10%。我們迄今推出市場的新產品表現非常成功。同時，我們仍有相當多的新產品方案，計畫在本季及後續季度推向市場。再加上我們日益成長的服務專業能力，使我們能解決客戶所面臨的複雜儲存問題，讓我們對接下來幾個季度充滿期待。接下來我把時間交還給 Dana，我們將開放問答。

Carol, we're ready to take questions now.

Carol，我們現在準備開始接受提問。

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] And we will take our first question from Shebly Seyrafi with Merril Lynch.

謝謝。［接線生指示］我們的第一個問題來自美林（Merril Lynch）的 Shebly Seyrafi。

Yes, thank you very much. Your tape automation business grew 70% year-over year, but your tape overall business declined 5%. So the missing parts are VSM and tape drives. It appears to me tape drives were particularly weak. It would appear to me that if your tape libraries are selling briskly, that they would also have -- you would also experience more tape drive sales through the attachment. But what happened on the tape drive front?

是的，非常感謝。你們的磁帶自動化業務年對年成長 70%，但整體磁帶業務卻下滑 5%。所以缺口主要在 VSM 與磁帶機（tape drives）。在我看來，磁帶機的表現似乎特別疲弱。在我看來，如果你們的磁帶櫃（tape libraries）銷售強勁，那麼透過隨附（attachment）也應該會帶動更多磁帶機銷售。但磁帶機這一塊發生了什麼事？

Well, you're right. A couple of things to bear in mind. Last year we brought out two new enhancements to our 9840 product line, which gave us a nice acceleration of tape drives last year. And secondly, when we went out with the SL8500, we provided the customers the ability to transfer those products to the SL8500, so that they can move more powder horns, and we saw a fair amount of activity in the first quarter. We don't anticipate that being a significant activity for the -- on the going forward basis. But it was certainly an awful lot of the transactions in the first quarter.

嗯，你說得對。有幾點需要記住。去年我們為 9840 產品線推出了兩項新強化功能，這讓我們去年的磁帶機出貨有不錯的加速。第二，當我們推出 SL8500 時，我們讓客戶能夠把那些產品轉移到 SL8500 上，讓他們可以移動更多的 powder horns，而我們在第一季看到相當多的活動。我們不預期這會在未來成為一項重大的活動。但第一季的交易中，確實有很大一部分是這類交易。

The other thing I will add to that, Shebly, is as you recall in the past, we've always talked about the ratios that we see in regards to revenue on drives, versus libraries. And leading up to the actual announcement and product launch of both the 8500 and 500, you recall, we continued to have a high degree of drives, which means in times of purchases, where there are a lot of tactical purchases going on by customers, they're putting as many as drives attaching as many drives on those libraries as they possibly can. Now as you put an 8500 out there, the good news is, as we see it going forward, is you get the -- I don't want to call it a shell, but you get the automation product out there and they start getting it into production. They do the migration that Pat has talked about. Now you start to see hopefully the actual adding of the drives on to it. So we see a little reversal of where we were two years ago, year and half ago. Now the new library is out there, and we actually anticipate that, that should turn around.

另外我想補充一點，Shebly，如你所記得的，過去我們一直談到我們看到的比率，也就是磁帶機的營收相對於磁帶櫃（libraries）的營收。在 8500 與 500 正式公告與產品上市之前，你也記得，我們一直維持很高比例的磁帶機；這表示在客戶採購、且有很多戰術性採購發生的時候，他們會在那些磁帶櫃上盡可能加掛更多磁帶機。現在當你把 8500 推出去，好消息是，從我們對未來的觀察，你會先把——我不想稱它為空殼——但你會先把自動化產品部署出去，並開始把它導入正式生產。他們會進行 Pat 所談到的移轉。接著你就會開始看到他們希望實際在上面再加裝磁帶機。因此我們看到一點反轉，和兩年前或一年半前的情況相反。現在新的磁帶櫃已經在市場上了，而我們也預期這應該會扭轉過來。

One more, if I can. How much higher do you think your backlog and pipeline is now, compared to the first part of Q1?

如果可以，我再問一個。你認為你們現在的在手訂單（backlog）和銷售管線（pipeline），相較於第一季初期，高出多少？

Well, we don't really give out that type of information. But I think, as I said in my comments, it was substantially higher.

嗯，我們不太會對外提供那類資訊。但我想，正如我在評論中所說的，它高出很多。

We'll go next to Tom Curlin with Capital Markets.

接下來請 Capital Markets 的 Tom Curlin 提問。

You mentioned that your backlog heading into the March quarter was less than your backlog heading into the March quarter of last year. How would you compare your backlog heading into the June quarter to the June quarter of last year?

你提到你們進入 3 月季度時的在手訂單，低於去年進入 3 月季度時的在手訂單。那你會如何比較你們進入 6 月季度時的在手訂單，與去年 6 月季度相比？

I may have not have been very clear. But I think I said that our backlog and pipeline going into this quarter was also substantially higher than they were a year ago. Especially our backlog.

我可能講得不夠清楚。但我想我說的是，我們進入本季時的在手訂單與銷售管線，也都明顯高於一年前。尤其是我們的在手訂單。

Okay. And, if I could just quickly in terms of new product timing support for LTO3 on the SL500, can you update us on that, and also, the virtual tape for open systems what's the status for GA on that, as well as LTO3 for SL500?

好的。另外，如果我可以快速問一下新產品時程：SL500 對 LTO3 的支援，你能更新一下嗎？另外，開放系統的虛擬磁帶（virtual tape）目前 GA（正式上市）的狀態如何？以及 SL500 的 LTO3 呢？

Right. The LTO3 is going to come out with this quarter and as we said before that our VSM open it will be out in the second half of the year.

好的。LTO3 會在本季推出；而如同我們先前所說，VSM open 會在今年下半年推出。

And we'll go next to Dan Renouard with Robert W. Baird.

接下來請 Robert W. Baird 的 Dan Renouard 提問。

Thanks. I guess I have just two, if I could. One is just your -- the cash. I know this is like beating a drum, but you did buy some more stock back, but your cash balance is still fairly high. And I guess, one, any thoughts to -- on the acquisition side, Pat, given your potential transition and as you get out into next year to that limit what you guys might do in terms of making an acquisition? Does that change things and all? Or what should we be thinking about in terms of your cash use? And then, my second question is just any kind of an update you could give us on your relationship with HP? Thanks.

謝謝。我想我只有兩個問題，如果可以的話。第一個是關於你們的——現金。我知道這有點像老生常談，但你們確實又回購了一些股票，不過你們的現金餘額仍然相當高。我想問，第一，在併購方面有什麼想法嗎，Pat？考量到你可能的交接，以及你們進入明年之後，這是否會限制你們在併購上的作為？這會改變什麼嗎？或者我們應該如何看待你們的現金運用？第二個問題是，你能否就你們與 HP 的關係提供任何更新？謝謝。

Okay. I'll make some general comments and give it to Bobby. I think it's fair to say that my tenure has -- will really have nothing to do with the strategy we have with the company, whether we have organic or inorganic growth. And obviously, we can't speak about anything more specifically than that. But rest assured that there's nothing in our process right now that my year and a half and year and few months that I have left would be a barrier to anything that I was thinking about doing. Bobby?

好的。我先做一些概括性的評論，然後交給 Bobby。我想可以公平地說，我的任期——其實與我們公司的策略無關，不論是有機成長或非有機成長。而且很明顯，我們也無法就此做更具體的說明。但請放心，目前我們的流程中，沒有任何事情會因為我還剩一年半到一年多一點的時間，而成為我想做任何事情的障礙。Bobby？

The only thing I would add, I mean Dan, we're pretty much continuing to look at what's out there that might be able to fill some of the gaps that we have. As you all know we put a lot of emphasis on the business model. We want to be able to position ourselves to be able to take advantage of those opportunities as they come. And I think that's always a potential. So we continue to look at hardware, software, any of the gaps that we might have that might provide some of the benefits that we need to fulfill the ILM strategy that we have. As we've always indicated in the past, distribution is another key. We try to look at what we can do to increase the capacity that we have or even our capabilities, both in our sales and in our service organizations. But we also look at any steps that will help us from a competitive standpoint. Outside of that, you know, many, as you know, all of you know, that in the industry there are a lot better heavier in cash, depending upon what you want to define is heavy. And we mentioned that even today, as many others have, that this environment that we're in is that, it still is a choppy market. And you know, even some of the economic views today are bringing in inflation into --it's creeping back into the economy. So we need to make sure that what we are doing is right for the long-term outlook for the company, and obviously want to ensure that we don't do anything that's going to put us at any competitive disadvantage. Having said that, I think we're going to continue to aggressively repurchase shares, as we have been in this quarter. And we're going to continue to balance the cash that we have, and we'll return it to the shareholders, along with whatever we believe is necessary for the reinvestment of future profitable growth.

我唯一想補充的是，Dan，我們基本上持續在看外面有哪些標的，可能可以補足我們的一些缺口。如各位所知，我們非常重視商業模式。我們希望能把自己定位好，以便在機會出現時能夠把握。我認為這一直都是一種可能性。因此我們持續關注硬體、軟體，以及任何我們可能存在的缺口；這些若能帶來我們所需的一些效益，將有助於我們落實既有的 ILM 策略。如同我們過去一直指出的，通路（distribution）也是另一個關鍵。我們會評估能做些什麼來提升我們的產能，甚至是能力——包括銷售與服務組織的能力。但我們也會考量任何能在競爭面上幫助我們的措施。除此之外，你知道的，很多——如各位所知，這個產業裡有很多公司現金更充裕，端看你怎麼定義「充裕」。而我們今天也提到，和許多其他人一樣，我們所處的環境仍是一個波動的市場。而且你知道，即使是今天的一些經濟觀點也把通膨納入考量——它正在重新滲回經濟體。所以我們必須確保我們所做的一切，對公司的長期展望是正確的，並且顯然要確保我們不會做出任何讓自己在競爭上處於不利的事情。話雖如此，我想我們會持續像本季一樣積極回購股份。我們也會持續在現金部位上取得平衡，並把現金回饋給股東，同時保留我們認為為了再投資、以支持未來獲利成長所必需的資金。

Next question, please.

下一個問題，請。

We'll go next to Andy McCullough with CSFB.

接下來請 CSFB 的 Andy McCullough 提問。

Bobby, just a clarification on your product gross margin guidance. You talked about expecting a shift back to direct sales in the second quarter after the big indirect mix in the first quarter. So I guess why shouldn't product gross margins hold up, at least through the second quarter and perhaps through the course of the year?

Bobby，我想釐清一下你們對產品毛利率的指引。你提到在第一季間接銷售占比很高之後，第二季預期會轉回以直銷為主。所以我想問，為什麼產品毛利率不應該至少在第二季維持住，甚至在全年都維持？

Good question. If you look at the split, the first quarter, it was really out of line with what we had in any prior quarter in, I would imagine at least two years. For the indirect side to be up above 55% is just not what's normal at this time. We had always talked about in our guidance that, as we bring out these new products into the SMB (ph) space, obviously, we think that the indirect channel business is going to grow. I think last year we probably ended up somewhere around, you know, the 45% range for the year and we thought that it would creep up towards you know, closer towards 50% this year. A lot of the solutions we have right now are --they span both. But we only have so much that we can do with the direct channel that we have. So when I look at margins, I'm kind of -- I mentioned the word aberration. It was kind of difficult for me to look at it, because we had so many deals that did not come into play in the first quarter that were direct-related, enterprise-related sales transactions. So that kind of skewed it. The other thing that skewed in the first quarter as well was the composition of the revenue. I believe in the first quarter this year, tape products were closer to80% of the total product sales, comparative to probably closer to 75% in Q1 of last year. So that means less disk, as we mentioned, less disk, less net working, which, as you know, those are lower margins. So that was also one of the reasons why, I think, margins were particularly a little bit higher in this first quarter than normal. Now, as we go forward, more into the SMB market space, more disk sales, more networking sales and that particular environment, we'll put the pressure on the product margin level. However, if you take a step back, when we came into the year I had talked about, at the product margin level, margins being maybe 100 to 150 basis points down, based upon what we were seeing. Now that I've added the first quarter in and I'm seeing where we are, basically I'm saying it might be flat to slightly down. So actually, I'm a little bit above the guidance that we gave at the end of the year, Andy.

好問題。如果你看一下拆分，第一季確實與我們過去任何一季相比都很不一致，我想至少是兩年來都沒有出現過。間接端占比高於55%在這個時間點並不正常。我們在指引中一直提到，隨著我們把這些新產品推向SMB（中小企業）（ph）市場，顯然我們認為間接通路業務會成長。我想去年全年我們大概落在45%左右的區間，而我們原本預期今年會逐步往接近50%靠攏。我們目前很多解決方案——同時涵蓋兩邊。但就我們現有的直銷通路而言，我們能做的事情畢竟有限。所以當我看毛利時，我有點——我提到「異常」這個詞。我有點難以解讀，因為第一季有太多原本應該發生、但沒有進來的交易，都是與直銷、企業級銷售交易相關。所以這就把數字扭曲了。第一季另外一個造成扭曲的因素是營收組成。我相信今年第一季，磁帶產品占總產品銷售的比重接近80%，相較之下去年第一季大概更接近75%。這代表硬碟更少——如我們提到的，硬碟更少、網路產品更少，而你也知道那些的毛利較低。所以我認為這也是為什麼第一季毛利特別比正常水準略高的原因之一。接下來，隨著我們更深入SMB市場、更多硬碟銷售、更多網路銷售以及那樣的環境，將會對產品毛利率水準造成壓力。不過，如果你退一步看，年初我們談到在產品毛利率層面，基於我們所看到的情況，毛利可能會下降約100到150個基點。現在把第一季納入後、看到我們目前的位置，我基本上是說可能持平到小幅下滑。所以其實我比我們在年底給出的指引略為樂觀一些，Andy。

We'll go next to Brian Freed with Morgan Keegan.

接下來請Brian Freed，Morgan Keegan。

Thanks for taking my call. Could you talk a little bit -- you've got over $1billion in cash and short-term investment. Can you talk about your rationale for not putting it into longer-term instruments that would yield a higher return to share holders? And secondly, could you talk about your progress on your next generation drives and timing there. Do you think some of the softness in your drive and media sales are related to customers anticipating that?

謝謝接我的電話。能否談一下——你們有超過10億美元的現金與短期投資。你能談談為什麼不把它投入期限更長、能為股東帶來更高報酬的工具的考量嗎？第二，能否談談你們下一代磁帶機的進展與時程？你認為你們磁帶機與媒體銷售的一些疲軟，是否與客戶在等待那個產品有關？

I'll handle the second part of the question, last, about the investment strategies. We're on track to deliver the next generation drive in the second half of the year. And I'm sure there are some customers who are holding back, and that could well be true. But, as I said in the first quarter, one of the services that we offer the customers, if they have 9840 drives, that we put them into the SL8500 and the demand for those were substantially higher in the first quarter than we anticipated. Those customers -- many of those 9840s are older generation products, the A's and B's and not C's and we anticipate that those customers will be upgrading to newer technology, whether it be next generation or the c-level products in the next several months.

我先回答第二部分，最後再談投資策略。我們按計畫在今年下半年交付下一代磁帶機。我確信有些客戶確實在觀望，這很可能是真的。但如我在第一季所說，我們提供客戶的一項服務是：如果他們有9840磁帶機，我們會把它們導入SL8500，而第一季對這些的需求明顯高於我們的預期。那些客戶——其中許多9840屬於較舊世代產品，A與B而非C，我們預期這些客戶會在接下來幾個月升級到更新技術，不論是下一代或是C等級產品。

And Brian, on the long-term investments, there's been a lot lately in regard to auction rate securities, in regard to how that's classified on the balance sheet. Looking at long-term investments, if we look at where we are the end of the first quarter this year to last year, we're up about 30% in what we've put in long term, which is maturity that are greater than 360 days. So we have actually increased it from where we were a year ago, and we'll continue to look at that as we go forward.

Brian，關於長期投資，最近市場對拍賣利率證券有很多討論，也涉及到在資產負債表上如何分類。就長期投資而言，如果我們看今年第一季末相較去年，我們投入長期（到期日大於360天）的金額大約增加了30%。所以我們其實已經比一年前提高了配置，未來也會持續檢視並調整。

Next question, please.

下一個問題，請。

We'll go next to David Bailey with Goldman Sachs.

接下來請Goldman Sachs的David Bailey。

Thank you. First of all, given these things that a lot of the deals that didn't close in the quarter merely slipped out and were not lost, how quickly do you think you can get those deals back? Do you think you'll get most of them back in the second quarter? And are you announcing that you're going to step down in a year or a year and a half, and if so, have you started putting in place a succession plan?

謝謝。首先，考量到這些情況——很多在本季未能結案的交易只是延後、並未流失——你認為你們能多快把這些交易拉回來？你覺得第二季能把大部分拉回來嗎？另外，你是否宣布你會在一年或一年半後卸任？如果是，你是否已開始建立接班計畫？

I guess they're both for me. My contract is up in the middle of next year, and, you know, I served with the pleasure of the board of directors and the shareholders, and right now there's been no discussions about that going on. However, rest assured that there will be management continuity and the board is actively involved, and I'm involved with them, in looking at succession. The first question was --

我想這兩個問題都是問我的。我的合約在明年年中到期，而你知道，我是在董事會與股東的授權與支持下任職，目前並沒有就此進行任何討論。不過請放心，管理層會保持延續性，董事會正積極參與，我也與他們一起在規劃接班。第一個問題是——

How much of the business do you think you can close in the -.

你認為有多少業務可以在——結案？

Right, right. Thank you. That's always a bit hard to say. But clearly, some of the business we've already closed. But we don't expect that all of it will come forward in the second quarter. I said quite frankly, what we have to do is go out there and, in essence, resell them. Because a lot of these large transactions were in front of CIO's or CEO's, in some cases, and they were frozen as people got more cautious in terms of the environmental, that economic environment that they were looking at. So we're going back in and reselling at that level to try to secure those transactions. We expect that a fair number will come in the second quarter, but we think that the there will be some in the third and fourth quarter.

對，對。謝謝。這一向有點難說。但很明顯地，其中一些業務我們已經結案了。但我們不預期全部都會在第二季回來。坦白說，我們必須走出去，某種程度上重新把它們賣一遍。因為很多大型交易是呈報到CIO，甚至在某些情況下到CEO層級，而當人們對他們所面對的環境、也就是經濟環境變得更謹慎時，這些交易就被凍結了。所以我們會回到那個層級重新推進銷售，以爭取把這些交易拿下。我們預期相當一部分會在第二季進來，但也認為第三與第四季還會有一些。

Thank you.

謝謝。

We'll go next to Glenn Hanus with Needham

接下來請Needham的Glenn Hanus。

Can you give any more color on Q2 guidance, since nobody asked that? You said you're going to be, what, up slightly year-over-year? So last year you were 516,I guess, and EPS of $0.31. Any kind of color you could give us on the guidance there?

既然沒有人問，你能否對第二季指引再多補充一些細節？你說你們會同比小幅成長，對吧？所以去年是516（我猜），每股盈餘EPS為0.31美元。你能否就那個指引提供一些補充說明？

Glenn, as you know, we try to make sure that we talk about the year. So we try to guide a little bit on what we do in the quarters, but mostly we make a commitment on what we're trying to do for the year, and that's the guidance that you basically heard in other words annualize margins, annualize revenue growth as we go forward. Now, having said that, I always would tell you that let's look at where we are in past years. That's the way our plans are developed, and that's the way that they typically come out in regards to the percentage of business that you do in any quarter, as a percentage of the total year. So we look for the second quarter to be slightly up. We do believe there will be some sequential growth as we go from the first to the second quarter. Unlike last year, where the back end of the second quarter, the last few weeks, there were a lot of transactions similar to this quarter that were pushed out in that particular quarter. So we are looking for sequential growth, and, you know, I would look at history from the prior years. The sequential growth from the first to the second quarter has ranged anywhere from probably 6% to 8% maybe 9% in that range. So just look at the history of what we've done in a normal year, and that's how it would look going into the second quarter. From an earnings perspective, it's the same way. Most of our year, we do probably. I would say probably a little bit less than 50% of the total earnings in the fourth quarter. We're just skewed that way. But if you look at the first and second and the third quarter, we've run somewhere around 12% of our income in the first quarter, and then in the second quarter it jumps up to somewhere between 17%, 19% of the total year. And the third quarter it's actually a little bit better than that. So, you know, that's the kind of guidance that we try to give, and the reason we do that is because we want to make sure that we're not going to do anything that's going to impact this business. We don't want to make short-term decisions. But we do commit to a year, and that's what we're trying to do this year.

Glenn，如你所知，我們會盡量確保我們談的是全年。因此，我們會對各季度的作為提供一些指引，但主要是就我們全年要達成的目標作出承諾；而你基本上聽到的指引，用另一種說法就是：隨著我們往前走，把利潤率年化、把營收成長年化。話雖如此，我一向會告訴你，讓我們看看過去幾年的情況。我們的計畫就是這樣制定的，而它們通常也會以這種方式呈現：任何一個季度的業務量占全年總量的百分比。因此，我們預期第二季會略為上升。我們確實相信，從第一季到第二季會有一些連續性的成長。不同於去年，去年第二季後段、最後幾週，有很多類似本季的交易被延後到那個季度。所以我們在看連續性成長，而且，你知道，我會參考前幾年的歷史。從第一季到第二季的連續性成長，大概介於6%到8%，也許9%，大概在那個區間。所以就看看我們在正常年度的歷史表現，進入第二季時大致就會是那樣。從獲利的角度來看，也是同樣的方式。我們全年大部分的獲利，我們大概會……我會說第四季大概貢獻了總獲利的略低於50%。我們就是偏向那樣的分布。但如果你看第一、第二和第三季，我們第一季大約貢獻了約12%的獲利，然後第二季會跳升到約占全年總額的17%到19%。第三季其實會比那個再好一點。所以，你知道，這就是我們嘗試提供的那種指引；我們這麼做的原因，是因為我們想確保我們不會做任何會影響這門業務的事情。我們不想做短期決策。但我們會對全年作出承諾，而這就是我們今年要做的事。

We'll go next to Clay Sumner with FBR.

接下來請FBR的Clay Sumner提問。

Thanks. It appears that the deferred revenue may have fallen a little bit more than usual in the accrued liabilities section. Can you give a little color there and see if that has anything to do or not with new products reducing deferred maintenance.

謝謝。看起來在應計負債（accrued liabilities）項下，遞延收入可能比平常下降得更多一些。你能否補充說明一下，看看這是否與新產品降低遞延維護（deferred maintenance）有關或無關。

Has fallen. Let me look at that balance sheet question here.

下降了。我先看一下這個資產負債表的問題。

As far as the growth rate maybe, it grew 3% year-over-year, versus like 16% year-over-year.

就成長率而言，可能是年增3%，相較之下之前大概是年增16%。

I don't think there's anything in particular there, Clay that comes to my mind that stands out. I'd have to look into the details of what's underneath that balance sheet account. And you and I can talk about it.

Clay，我一時想不到有什麼特別突出的原因。我得去看一下那個資產負債表科目底下的明細。然後你我再聊。

But essentially deferred revenue is not falling?

但基本上遞延收入並沒有下降？

No, not at all.

沒有，完全沒有。

Okay thank, you very much.

好的，非常感謝。

We'll go next to Aaron Rakers with AG Edwards.

接下來請AG Edwards的Aaron Rakers提問。

Thanks, guys. I was wondering if you could comment a little bit on the competitive dynamics that you saw in the quarter, namely, IBM posting 3% tape growth year-over-year, you guys declining 5%. If you can, wrap a little color around what's going on in the pricing environment, as well as you can if you can, talk about what you're seeing from EMC and ADIC. And also, a clarification if you can again on the tax rate and what your expectations are going forward, thanks.

謝謝，各位。我想請你們談談本季看到的競爭態勢，具體來說，IBM的磁帶（tape）年增3%，你們則下滑5%。如果可以的話，請多補充一些目前的定價環境；另外也請談談你們從EMC和ADIC那邊看到的情況。還有，如果可以的話，請再釐清一下稅率，以及你們對未來的預期，謝謝。

Okay I 'll let Bobby handle the tax question and I'll handle the competitive question. We didn't see the competitive landscape in the first quarter being dramatically different than we had over the past couple of years. As reverse to us, if you'll recall, IBM actually had a weak fourth quarter, their revenues were down, and they may well have had a reverse problem in the fourth quarter with a same problem that we had in the first quarter. They may have come in with transactions that didn't go to revenue. And we have not let me repeat what I said in my comments, that the business that we expected to deliver in the first quarter was not business that we lost to competition, it was fundamentally business that was moved out to subsequent quarters. So we didn't see IBM making that big of an impact. I do believe that IBM still uses their install-based, of max cost had them upgraded to jaguars, and that gives them an opportunity to, in essence, drive that business, and we don't see - and that is not necessarily visible to the rest of the market place. In terms of others, we don't see them as being a major factor in the market place. So that you know E.M.C. I your voices have to be mindful it's insist a big company and we are always mindful in tells of what's going on in the street, but we don't see a material impact in that partnership on our business.

好的，我讓Bobby回答稅務問題，我來回答競爭問題。我們沒有看到第一季的競爭格局與過去幾年相比有顯著不同。就我們而言，如果你還記得，IBM其實第四季表現偏弱，他們的營收下滑；他們很可能在第四季也遇到一個「反向」的問題，和我們第一季遇到的同樣問題。他們可能有一些交易沒有轉成營收。而且我再重申一次我在評論裡說過的：我們原本預期第一季要交付的業務，並不是因競爭而流失的業務；基本上是被移到後續季度的業務。所以我們沒有看到IBM造成那麼大的影響。我確實相信IBM仍然利用其既有裝機基礎（install base），以最低成本把它們升級到Jaguar，這讓他們有機會在本質上推動那部分業務；而我們並不認為——而且這對市場其他參與者未必是可見的。至於其他競爭者，我們不認為他們是市場上的主要因素。所以你知道，E.M.C.。你們必須留意，它畢竟是一家大公司，我們也一直關注市場上的動態，但我們沒有看到那個合作夥伴關係對我們的業務造成實質性的影響。

Again on the tax rate, we came into the year thinking it would be right around 23%. But as we looked at Q1 performance and we look at the shift, not only them the amount of revenue and income within each various country, but, you know, the shift between countries, you know, taxes are a different world today. You're going to see tax rates that fluctuate, unlike years ago, when it wasn't under the tax reserves and the whole tax area weren't under as much scrutiny as they are today. And so today, when we look at the best estimate that we have of where the income is going to come in, by geography by country, 21% is what we see at the moment.

再談稅率，我們年初的想法是大約在23%左右。但當我們看第一季表現，以及我們看到的變化——不只是各國的營收與獲利金額，還包括國家之間的移轉——你知道，現在的稅務環境已經不同了。你會看到稅率波動；不像多年前，當時稅務準備（tax reserves）以及整個稅務領域並沒有像今天這樣受到嚴格檢視。因此今天，當我們依據目前對獲利將落在哪些地理區域、哪些國家的最佳估計來看，現階段我們看到的是21%。

Okay next question, please.

好的，請下一個問題。

We'll go next to Henry Naah with Lehman.

接下來請Lehman的Henry Naah提問。

Hey guys two questions, if I may. First of all, just a clarification. Did you guys say EPS execution for 10% growth this year?

各位好，我有兩個問題，如果可以的話。首先，想確認一下。你們是說今年EPS目標是成長10%嗎？

Yes actually if you take the guidance that we are talking about and we mentioned at the pretax level that we were going to be somewhere around $260 million, when you go all the way down and you tax-effect it and you look at the fact of where the shares are and what we plan on doing or thinking of doing on the share buyback program, you can come to an EPS number that will actually show about a 10%, somewhere around a 10% increase over last year.

是的，其實如果你把我們正在談的指引納入考量，而且我們提到稅前層級大約會在2.60億美元左右，當你一路往下推、把稅務影響反映進去，再考量目前的股數以及我們在庫藏股回購計畫上打算做或正在考慮做的事情，你可以推導出一個EPS數字，實際上會顯示相較去年約有10%左右的成長。

Okay, great. And then the other question was, backing up on the prior question, you know, looking at EMC and IBM's quarters, when they reported, you know, obviously, IBM had some issues on the services side. But EMC seemed to note that their business was actually pretty strong in the second half of March, and they saw demand accelerate. I'm wondering, Pat, if you could comment a little bit as to what possibly could have been the difference between EMC's kind of what they saw at the end of the quarter and what you guys saw, whether it was prioritization by the customers in terms of buying disk versus buying tape.

好的，很好。然後另一個問題是，回到前一個問題，你知道，看 EMC 和 IBM 的季度表現，在他們公布的時候，你知道，很明顯 IBM 在服務端有一些問題。但 EMC 似乎指出他們在三月下半月的業務其實相當強勁，而且他們看到需求加速。我想請問 Pat，你是否可以稍微評論一下，EMC 在季度末看到的情況與你們看到的情況之間，可能有什麼差異？不論是客戶在優先順序上的考量，例如買磁碟而不是買磁帶。

It's really hard for me to comment on what was going on with EMC I have not really taken a look at the financials in terms of how much their revenue growth was contributed by symmetrix versus on how much was being delivered by their indirect channel versus the direct. And I really can't speak to that. And obviously, I can't speak to the prioritization between tape and disk. Now as I said our automation was up very strongly, and a lot of what was deferred out of the quarter was ILM transactions so I can't give you a good answer.

我很難評論 EMC 那邊發生了什麼，因為我並沒有真正去看他們的財報，去分析他們的營收成長有多少是由 Symmetrix 貢獻的，或是有多少是透過間接通路交付、相對於直接銷售。而且我也真的無法就此發言。當然，我也無法評論磁帶與磁碟之間的優先順序。如我所說，我們的自動化業務成長非常強勁，而本季延後的很多是 ILM 交易，所以我沒辦法給你一個好的答案。

Next question, please.

請下一個問題。

We'll go next to Jason Williams.

接下來我們請 Jason Williams。

Hi, it's actually John Bode. I'm looking at the cash position. When you say a billion one fifteen cash, you have no debt, and your business in a time when the new product cycle is growing 2-4%, I'm trying to get my hands around the unwillingness to be more aggressive, you used the word aggressive, and the share count actually increased this quarter versus last quarter. So the only thing I can tell is that, hey you're saving your cash for some type of value-destroying acquisition, which no one wants, or you have virtually zero confidence in your business at this point. Why wouldn't you be more aggressive?

嗨，其實我是 John Bode。我在看現金部位。當你說有 11 億 1,500 萬美元現金、沒有負債，而你們的業務在新產品週期成長 2% 到 4% 的時期，我試著理解你們不願意更積極的原因；你用了「積極」這個詞，而且本季的流通股數相較上季其實增加了。所以我唯一能推論的是：你們是在把現金留著做某種會破壞價值的併購（沒有人想要），或者你們此刻對自己的業務幾乎沒有信心。為什麼不更積極一點？

Well, you know, I think if you go back over to our past several years, in terms of what we said, we've been very clear that we are not in the business of destroying value in the company. And there's been a lot of opportunities that have come our way and we've turned them down, because, quite frankly, we did not believe they were in the best interests of our shareholders. And we thought that the share buyback that we were engaged in less than a year ago was pretty aggressive and that was the feedback that we got from our investors at that time, recognizing that the number of shares goes up and down depending on the price of stock as more and more options come in and out of play. It's not all that scientific. I guess you know that, so I really can't speak to that. We're not about to sit down here and destroy the value of this company. We worked too damned hard for our shareholders to do that.

嗯，你知道，我想如果你回顧我們過去幾年所說的話，我們一直非常清楚：我們不做會破壞公司價值的事。有很多機會找上門來，我們都拒絕了，因為坦白說，我們不認為那符合股東的最佳利益。而且我們認為不到一年前我們進行的庫藏股回購其實已經相當積極，當時我們從投資人那裡得到的回饋也是如此；同時也要認知到，隨著股價變動、越來越多選擇權進出，股數會上上下下。這並不是那麼科學。我想你也知道，所以我真的沒辦法就此多說。我們不會坐在這裡去破壞這家公司的價值。我們為股東努力得太他媽辛苦了，不會這麼做。

And just to finish on that point, typically the first quarter is when we do most of grants, which is why it did creep up a little bit in the first quarter. You can anticipate that that will be going down in the last three quarters of the year.

另外補充一下，通常第一季是我們發放大部分授予（grants）的時候，這也是為什麼第一季股數會稍微增加一點。你可以預期在接下來三個季度會下降。

Carol, next question.

Carol，下一個問題。

Our final question today comes from Kaushik Roy with Susquehanna Financial.

我們今天最後一個問題來自 Susquehanna Financial 的 Kaushik Roy。

Your services revenue continues to grow and is at 47% of revenue now. Where do you expect services revenues to be in the percent of total revenues for 2005?

你們的服務營收持續成長，現在已占營收的 47%。你預期 2005 年服務營收占總營收的比例會是多少？

Well, this is Bobby, Kaushik. We're still looking for our services revenue to probably grow somewhere in the 6 to 7% range for the year. So depending upon what you're going to assume from a product sales standpoint, inside the guidelines we gave of 2 to 4%, income up with that percentage. But it should still be north of 40% as you know, for the full year. Keep in mind in the first quarter, obviously, the product sales that's the weakest quarter of the year in product sales. Obviously, that 47% that you just came up with is higher than what it will be for the full year. But I don't believe we're making a lot of progress. The fact that professional services grew 15% this year, this is something that we have said all along. This is a key indicator that we're being successful in deploying ILM across the table, because you've got professional service consultants in there designing those architectures, trying to make them work for the customers, to solve their problems. So I think that's a big plus that that continues to grow. And on the maintenance side, it continues to grow above and beyond what the normal rates are in the industry. I think from a product support standpoint, I think the industry averages are somewhere between 1 to maybe 3% at the high end. And we continue to grow at 4%. So a lot of that has to do with the composition of what our installation base is made up of. And so those growth rates, we believe, ought to continue. Obviously, it's a very steady revenue stream force, provides good margin and cash flow, very predictable. It's always nice to know that going into the quarter you have 40% of your revenue pretty much in hand at high renewal rates on yearly contracts, so that's a big positive for us.

Kaushik，我是 Bobby。我們仍然預期今年服務營收大概會成長 6% 到 7% 左右。所以這要看你對產品銷售端的假設是什麼；在我們給的 2% 到 4% 指引範圍內，服務占比會隨之變動。但如你所知，全年應該仍會高於 40%。請記住第一季很明顯是產品銷售一年中最弱的一季。顯然你算出的 47% 會高於全年水準。但我不認為我們沒有取得很多進展。專業服務今年成長 15%，這是我們一直以來所說的。這是我們成功把 ILM 推向客戶端的一個關鍵指標，因為專業服務顧問會進去設計那些架構，並嘗試讓它們為客戶運作、解決他們的問題。所以我認為這持續成長是一個很大的加分。而在維護（maintenance）方面，它也持續成長，且高於產業正常水準。我想就產品支援而言，產業平均大概在 1% 到最高可能 3% 左右。而我們持續以 4% 成長。其中很大一部分與我們裝機基礎（installation base）的組成有關。因此我們相信這些成長率應該會持續。顯然這是一個非常穩定的營收來源，帶來良好的毛利與現金流，非常可預測。能在進入季度時就知道大約 40% 的營收基本上已在手上，且年度合約的續約率很高，這對我們來說一直是很大的正面因素。

The professional services are at about 15% now?

專業服務現在大約占 15% 嗎？

Actually, I think this quarter it was about 12%. I think it was 11%last year in the first quarter. So we continued to grow there. For the year last year it ended up about 13%. And we're thinking that it will exceed that amount this year. But we think it's going to be above 13% for the full year.

其實我想本季大約是 12%。去年第一季我記得是 11%。所以我們在那裡持續成長。去年全年最後大約是 13%。而我們認為今年會超過那個水準。我們認為全年會高於 13%。

Okay, great, thank you.

好的，很好，謝謝。

Thank you for joining us this afternoon. As you review the results, if you have additional questions, please feel free to call me. Have a good evening, everyone.

感謝各位今天下午加入我們。在你檢視結果時，如果還有其他問題，請隨時打電話給我。各位晚安。