EMC chief: Tech spending has bottomed out - San Francisco Business Times:

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“We believe the global IT spending environmen hasreached -- or is very near -- the bottom,” said Josephg Tucci in a statement accompanying the Mass., IT infrastructure giant’s first quarter “We expect IT spending to improve in the second half of 2009 as customers will have betterf budget visibility, be further through theidr own restructuring programs and broader stimulus packageas should be underway.” The comment s come as EMC EMC) reported a 9 percent drop in revenue year over year to $3.2 billionh and a 23 percent year over year drop in net income to $194.q million or 10 cents per share.
Analysts were expectinfg earnings of 16 cents per sharer on revenueof $3.3 Despite Tucci’s statement, the company said its “besg estimate” on global IT spending growthj in 2009 is high singld digits to low double digits, with the vast majority of the growtg coming late in the year. Second quarte r spending is expected to be flat compared with thefirst quarter. EMC Chief Financiak Officer David Goulden said the company is taking additionalk cost cutting measures that will save anadditionalo $100 million this year. The cost savings will be a 5 percent cut in pay for all salaried employees and a 10 percent cut in pay to EMCboarrd members.
Earlier this year, EMC announced a $350 million cost savings prograk that shaved the workforceby 2,400 jobs. The company also warnedd investors that the IT spending environment will result in lowetr gross margins in 2009 compared with last One bright spot for the compangy was the performanceof (NYSE: which is majority owned by EMC. VMware’sx revenue grew 7 percent year over yearto $470.4 Shares of EMC were down 21 cents to $12.45 in morning trading.