NEC Corp reported net consolidated sales of $35,096m, up 1.8% on last fiscal year, resulting net profit of $65m, compared with a net loss of $452m last fiscal year. Overall the improved result was due to strong sales of electronic devices in overseas markets, said NEC, and to a decreased losses in the NEC Home Electronics subsidiary, which has been undergoing restructuring for the past several years – down to $84m from $162m last year. Sales of the UltraLite Versa notebook in the US market, as well as popularity of NEC CD-ROMs and Multisync monitors also contributed. By sector, NEC says that on an unconsolidated base, communications equipment sales declined 0.3% to $8.14m, computers and information processing equipment fell 0.4% to $14,28m, while electronic devices rose 10% to $5,340m. NEC gave specific figures concerning its sales of computers. During the year: five supercomputers were installed, 1,292 of the ACOS series mainframes (down 7% from last year), while office processors and proprietary minicomputers declined 9% and 26% to 65,300 and 1,020 units respectively. Orders of the EWS 4800 series of Unix workstations were up 42%, while the UP series servers were up over 200%. Sales of personal computers grew 15% to 1.5m units. For next year, NEC predicts single digit growth in personal computer sales and double digit growth in the EWS and UP series of workstations and servers, and low to negative growth in all other computer fields. Overall its predictions are for turnover up 4% at $36,110m and net profit up 354% at $300,000m.
