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NCR EARNINGS FALL AS DATA WAREHOUSING REVENUE FALLS

NCR Corp, a maker of large computer systems, said that fourth-quarter earnings fell due to lower revenues from its database and retail automation products.

NCR, which makes the data warehousing equipment used to handle large databases, and computer systems, said that excluding charges, earnings fell to $72 million, or 73 cents per share, down from $105 million, or $1.05 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Analysts expected earnings of 72 cents per share within a range of 71 cents to 75 cents per share.

The company said it took charges of $2 million in the fourth-quarter of 2001 to cover acquisition related charges while in the year-ago period it had charges of $16 million of related to its restructuring plan and $2 million of acquisition integration charges.

Including charges, the company said it had net income of $71 million, or 72 cents per share, down from $90 million, or 90 cents per share in the year earlier period.

NCR told analysts in October to expect operating income in the range of 70 cents to 75 cents per share. It also told them to expect a revenue decline of 5 percent to 10 percent from the year earlier.

NCR said that fourth-quarter revenue fell to $1.6 billion from $1.79 billion in the year-ago period, bringing full-year 2001 revenues to $5.91 billion, down from $5.96 billion in 2000.

Looking forward, NCR said it expects revenue in 2002 to be flat compared with 2001 and sees operating income per share of $2.25 to $2.30. It sees first-quarter revenue down 8 percent to 10 percent from the year-earlier period. It sees operating income of nil to 5 cents per share.

For the first quarter, analysts had expected earnings of 13 cents per share on $1.3 billion in revenue and for the year had seen earnings of $2.53 per share on revenue of $1.79 billion, according to tracking firm Thomson Financial/ First Call.

NCR, like other large technology companies, was hurt in the fourth quarter by a decline in corporate technology spending. Hit by weaker demand, NCR said during the third quarter that it was cutting costs to improve profitability of its large data warehousing business.

A data warehouse is a database of corporate historical transaction information that is gathered and then analyzed by the company, such as a retail organization.

In the fourth quarter, the company said data warehousing revenue fell by 8 percent compared with the year-ago period while revenue for retail store automation products declined 23 percent. Financial self service sector sells declined 5 percent while customers services maintenance was off 4 percent.

The company said it sees data warehousing revenues increasing 10 percent in 2002 while retail store automation will fall up to 5 percent. In the first quarter, however, data warehousing will continue to weigh on revenues as it falls up to 5 percent and retail store automation declines 25 percent.