Xyratex: Preliminary Fiscal 3Q12 Financial Results

Xyratex Ltd announced selected preliminary financial results for its fiscal third quarter, which ended August 31, 2012.

The company expects revenue for the third quarter of 2012 to be between $271 million and $276 million compared to the previously guided revenue range of $313 million to $373 million.

The company expects gross margin to be between 18.0% and 18.5%.

"Our preliminary financial results for the third quarter reflect reduced demand from a number of our large OEM customers in our Enterprise Data Storage Solutions segment. In addition, the preliminary results reflect specific technical and performance requirements that have not been met to date and therefore have delayed product acceptance and revenue recognition for our latest Capital Equipment and High Performance Computing products," said Steve Barber, CEO of Xyratex. "While the deferral in meeting the specific acceptance testing criteria for our new solutions is disappointing, we are working very closely with our customers to meet the required acceptance specifications and I am very encouraged by the fact that the overall customer feedback for these products is positive."

Barber continued: "In light of the macro-economic environment and concerns indicated by a number of our customers, we are reviewing our fiscal fourth quarter planning assumptions and will be aligning our business assumptions with our revised estimates of demand."

The company will report final fiscal third quarter results on Tuesday, October 2, 2012.