Earnings Briefs

Houston— Revenue for the Access segment of Compaq Computer, which includes personal computers, decreased 18 percent in the first quarter, reaching $3.5 billion, compared with $4.3 billion in the year-ago period. Sequentially, revenue for this segment was off 6 percent in the first quarter. The Access segment posted an operating loss of $36 million in the three months, ended March 31, compared with a loss of $110 million in the same period in 2001. Compaq attributed the reduced operating loss in the first quarter to continued customer acceptance of new products and continued business model improvements. Overall company revenue for the first quarter was $7.7 billion, down from $9.1 billion in the year-ago three months. Net income for the first quarter was $44 million, compared with a loss of $91 million year over year.

Cupertino, Calif. — Solid sales of its new iMac have helped Apple Computer post fiscal second-quarter profit that bettered Wall Street estimates. For the three months, ended March 30, Apple earned $40 million on sales of $1.5 billion, up 4 percent in sales, compared with income of $43 million in the second quarter of 2001, on sales of $1.43 billion. Analysts had expected $1.46 billion in revenue in the second quarter. Apple shipped 372,000 iMac models during the second quarter, a 24 percent increase over the 300,000 iMacs shipped in the second quarter of 2001.

Poway, Calif. — First-quarter sales at personal computer maker Gateway were cut in half, compared with the same three months in 2001, with revenue sliding to $992.2 million, down from $2 billion. Gateway nearly doubled its net loss for the first quarter, ended March 31, hitting $123.2 million, compared with a loss of $62 million in the first quarter last year. The current loss includes pre-tax effects of $99 million of special charges. During the first quarter, Gateway sold 645,000 PCs in the United States, down 30 percent from the same three months in 2001, but off only 5 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. Average unit price decreased to $1,538, compared with $1,667 in the fourth quarter of last year.