Unisys slow to recover from year 2000

Unisys has warned that it will report lower than expected first quarter results because of weak US federal government sales and the slow recovery from the year 2000 lockdown of its financial services arm.

The company, which services Dell's hardware, said turnover will be between $1.66bn and $1.69bn for the first quarter ending 31 March. Dell will release its results on 13 April. Unisys said the implementation of an integrated go-to market model for its 1000 largest clients during the quarter meant it had devoted less time to its sales efforts. This resulted in its technology business rebounding faster from the year 2000 lockdown than its services business, leading to better than expected first quarter product sales.

But while services turnover was down compared with a year ago, Unisys said it has experienced a significant pick up in services during the quarter and expects the division to yield strengthening orders and revenue during the year.

The company said it still expected double-digit revenue growth in the second half of 2000 thanks to a rise in customer demand, improved sales force productivity and increased sales of its ebusiness and technology offerings.

Turnover is also expected to be slightly down in the second quarter. Unisys expects revenue growth of between four and six per cent for the full year.

Lawrence Weinbach, chief executive at Unisys, said: "I wish we could have got off to a faster start to the year, but I am encouraged by the underlying activity we are seeing in our business."

10:29:25, Tue 11 April 2000

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), April 11, 2000