JNI Sinks as Sun Demand Falls

JNI (Nasdaq: JNIC) fell US$1.11 to $8.02 in morning trading Thursday after the company said results for the firstquarter will be below earlier expectations because of slow sales at itsbiggest customer, Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: SUNW).

JNI, a San Diego, California-based maker of computer storage components,said that weak sales of Sun servers and storage networking and infrastructureproducts will result in a year-over-year revenue increase of only 9 to 12percent for the first quarter ending in March.

JNI said it expects revenueof $20 million to $21 million, and income before amortization of 3 to4 cents per share, down from 8 cents per share a year earlier. Analysts had expectedearnings of 14 cents per share.

“With the majority of our revenues derived from sales of Sun Solaris-basedproducts, continued weakness in the Sun server marketplace has had an impacton first-quarter performance,” said JNI president and chief executive officerNeal Waddington.

JNI said it is “on track” with development of a new set of products, EmeraldIV, a strategy it called “essential” in balancing revenue from Solaris andnon-Solaris products and reducing the company’s vulnerability to a marketdownturn.

JNI plans to report first-quarter results the week of April 23rd.

JNI’s announcement follows news last month that Sun officials lowered theiroutlook for the third quarter ending in March because of a slowing U.S.economy and drop in corporate spending on technology products.

JNI also makes products for companies including Amdahl, Compaq,Hewlett-Packard and LSI Logic.

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