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Drop In PC Sales Ushers In History at Western Digital

Western Digital Corp. hinted in May that revenue from non-PC business lines would account for more than 50% of its annual sales.

That projection was confirmed in its recently filed annual report, marking the first time that’s happened in the Irvine-based company’s 43-year history.

It’s a significant shift for a storage drive maker that has long relied on the PC market to drive sales.

The PC segment accounted for nearly 65% of its annual revenue five years ago. It now makes up a little less than 50% of revenue.

“We’re becoming less and less of a PC story and more of an overall digital data growth story,” Chief Executive Steve Milligan said in a conference call after the company’s March quarter earnings were released.

The company’s disk drives go into computers, external storage devices, corporate networks and consumer electronics.

Western Digital’s strategy to diversify products into the corporate sector and cloud as the growth of digital data and mobile devices explodes helped the company reach record sales in the 12 months through June, the end of its fiscal year.

Revenue topped $15.4 billion, up 23% from a year earlier.

Net income was $1 billion, down 37.5% as integration costs related to last year’s $4.3 billion buy of San Jose-based Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Ltd. cut into profits. Increased sales and marketing efforts for new products such as hybrid drives and a boost in research and development spending also trimmed profits (see related story, page 7).

Kofax Sets Record

Irvine-based business software maker Kofax PLC reported record annual revenue in its recently ended fiscal year as its image capture and data extraction products gain adoption.

The company, which is publicly traded in London but maintains its headquarters here, posted sales of $266.3 million in the 12 months through June, up 1.5% from a year earlier. Income from operations increased 13.5% to $25.1 million.

Kofax makes scanning software used by businesses to streamline the flow of information, eliminate paper, speed up productivity, reduce costs and improve customer service.

It was an acquisitive year for Kofax as the company bought two competitors to expand product offerings.

That included a $13.5 million deal for Altosoft Inc., a business intelligence and analytics software developer based in Media, Penn., that targets the healthcare industry; and a $47 million buy of Palo Alto-based Kapow Software, which sells products that integrate and automate data in near real time.

The Kapow acquisition builds on the Altosoft deal, as the combined offerings will be targeted to large corporations and billed to enable users to access critical data faster and cheaper.

Speaker Debuts Across the Pond

Newport Beach startup Stellé Audio Couture has launched its flagship portable speaker in Europe.

The sleek, wireless Bluetooth product, dubbed Pillar, is available at select Apple stores in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Spain.

Apple stores will stock a new bronze version of Pillar, which debuted at the International Consumer Electronics Show this year, as well as the original brushed aluminum version.

The original sells for $469, the bronze for $549.

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