EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the world's leading provider of enterprise storage systems, software and services, today reported accelerated growth in revenue and net income for the first quarter of 2000.

Total revenue for the first quarter was $1.82 billion, 23% higher than the first quarter of 1999. Net income for the quarter was $332 million, up 49% compared with the first quarter of 1999. On a diluted basis, earnings per share were $0.30 in the quarter, 50% higher than the $0.20 earned in the first quarter of 1999. These consolidated results include both EMC's storage business and its Data General division, formed after the acquisition of Data General Corp. during the fourth quarter of 1999.

Total storage revenue for the first quarter was $1.65 billion, 34% higher than the first quarter of 1999. This accelerated growth was highlighted by 31% year-to-year growth in enterprise storage systems revenue and 74% year-to-year growth in enterprise storage software revenue.

Mike Ruettgers, EMC's Chief Executive Officer, said, "Rapid information access is now widely regarded as the fuel for the world's economy, and two-thirds of the world's most important information lives on EMC technology. We had an exceptionally strong first quarter in all geographies, particularly the Asia-Pacific region, which grew more than 60% over last year's first quarter. We saw surges in demand from large companies such as The Home Depot, Bertelsmann of Germany and Korea Telecom as they built their increased Internet initiatives on the EMC E-Infostructure. We believe we gained market share against all major competitors during the quarter, in both storage systems and software as well as emerging segments such as storage area networks (SANs) and network-attached storage (NAS)."

Revenue from Symmetrix systems with Fibre Channel connectivity was nearly $600 million in the first quarter, more than double the level of a year ago. "While other vendors continue to describe widespread SAN (storage area network) implementation as a future," said Ruettgers, "we are experiencing the first-mover advantages of offering the world's only complete enterprise-level SAN." EMC's SAN revenues were more than $250 million in the first quarter, up more than 60% sequentially compared with the fourth quarter of 1999. Revenue from EMC Celerra, the world's premier enterprise-class network-attached storage (NAS) system, also rose sharply, with industry-leading sequential quarterly growth of about 40% compared with the fourth quarter of 1999.

EMC's balance sheet also continued to strengthen, with cash and investments totaling nearly $3.4 billion at the end of the quarter.

Other highlights of the first quarter included the formation of the ECOstructure initiative, a new Internet infrastructure alliance with EMC, Cisco Systems and Oracle; the announcement of a Strategic Global Alliance between EMC and Microsoft; the signing of a major new reseller agreement with Comparex Holdings Limited, a leading European IT solutions provider; and the ranking of EMC among the five top-performing companies of the S&P 500 on the 2000 "BusinessWeek 50."

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) is the world leader in information storage systems, software, networks and services, providing the information infrastructure for a connected world. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at http://www.emc.com