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NetApp, Inc.

5/19/2013, 3:25 PM ET

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Thursday, May 16, 7:21 PM Goldman is working with NetApp (NTAP) to explore options, Bloomberg reports in an updated version of its story about Elliott Associates' stake. Not surprisingly, Elliott is said to be pushing NetApp to return cash, and to be proposing a new director slate. NetApp ($13.9B market cap) had $6.7B in cash/investments on its balance sheet as of Jan. 24, and $2.2B in debt. The company doesn't pay a dividend. Piper believes NetApp is planning to cut 1,300 jobs (~10% of its workforce) in underperforming areas such as its Engenio high-performance storage unit (acquired in 2011 from LSI). Shares +1.6% AH after jumping 6.1% in regular trading. 3 Comments [Tech]
Thursday, May 16, 12:07 PM NetApp (NTAP +7.1%) soars on a report activist firm Elliott Associates has taken a sub-5% stake (could grow larger in time) in the company, and is pushing it to "change its board and study options to boost shareholder value." Elliott is fresh off a successful push to get BMC Software to sell itself. The news comes ahead of NetApp's Tuesday FQ4 report. (dealReporter) Comment! [Tech, On the Move]
Wednesday, May 15, 1:23 AM IDC cuts its 2013 IT spending growth forecast to 4.9% from 5.5%, citing macro issues and weak PC demand; 2012 growth was 5.6%. Gartner, which includes a bigger array of products/services in its numbers, forecast 4.1% growth last month. IDC now sees U.S. software spending (MSFT, ORCL) growing 6%, down from a prior 7%. Storage hardware revenue (EMC, NTAP) is only expected to grow 2.4%, down from 2012's 6.1%, and carrier spending on networking gear (CSCO, JNPR, ALU, CIEN) is expected to grow just 1.1% vs. 5.8% in 2012. Recent earnings reports and warnings (I, II, III, IV) help explain the subdued outlook. 2 Comments [Tech]
Monday, May 13, 4:14 PM NetApp (NTAP -0.2%) spiked a bit before the close after dealReporter stated an activist investor is engaging the company. The report follows a Piper note indicating the company is planning to cut 10% of its workforce. FQ4 results arrive on May 21. Comment! [Tech]
Saturday, May 11, 2:22 PM EMC showed off plenty of new software at its EMC World conference, but was light on hardware news. In addition to its ViPR storage management platform, EMC unveiled: 1) An OS update for its Isilon scale-out NAS systems (competes with NTAP) that adds support for data deduplication and the Hadoop big data framework. 2) A Data Protection Suite (competes with SYMC and CVLT) that ties together existing backup/archive software, while allowing for more flexible licensing. 3) The addition of hybrid cloud support for its Syncplicity cloud file-syncing platform. EMC wants to make clear it won't get left behind as a growing amount of storage industry value shifts to software, with much of it residing on servers rather than storage arrays. 1 Comment [Tech]
Tuesday, April 23, 10:20 AM Storage/hard drive stocks are outperforming, possibly aided by Veeco's Q1 bookings numbers: the company reported hard drive equipment bookings totaled $27M, down 7% Y/Y but up 60% Q/Q in spite of slumping PC demand. Veeco added on its CC (transcript) hard drive customers are "starting to make selective technology buy decisions" once more. STX +2.6%. WDC +2.6%. EMC +1.8%. NTAP +2.7%. XRTX +1.6%. QTM +5.1%. EMC reports tomorrow morning. Also, LED/solar equipment makers Aixtron (AIXG +9%) and GT Advanced (GTAT +2.7%) are getting a lift from Veeco's numbers and bullish Q2 commentary. 2 Comments [Tech, On the Move]
Friday, April 19, 11:17 AM Enterprise IT names continue to underperform following a 1-2 earnings punch from IBM and SAP. Storage-related names are among the decliners, perhaps thanks to the 11% Y/Y drop IBM reported for its storage hardware sales. FIO -2.7%. EMC -2.3%. NTAP -2%. H-P (HPQ -1.4%) could be affected not only by the earnings reports, but by Blackstone's decision to abandon its bid for Dell. 1 Comment [Tech, On the Move]
Thursday, April 11, 12:10 PM IBM is following up on last year's acquisition of flash storage OEM Texas Memory by promising to invest $1B in flash storage R&D. Plans include the development of 12 "centers of flash competency," the inclusion of flash support in IBM's integrated PureSystems hardware, and the expansion of IBM's new (Texas Memory-based) FlashSystem storage line. The plans represent extra competition for EMC (XtremIO) and NetApp (NTAP - FlashRay), and could be both a positive and negative for OEM partner Fusion-io (FIO). (PR) (IBM's storage strategy) Comment! [Tech]
Wednesday, April 10, 9:19 AM IBM +1.1% and NetApp (NTAP) -1.2% after UBS upgrades the former to Buy and downgrades the latter to Neutral. The firm argues IBM is well-positioned for the transition towards delivering IT solutions as services (ed: some companies are bigger fans of this than others), and also likes its ability to execute. Whereas UBS thinks that same transition could hurt NetApp due to a narrow product focus. NetApp has made efforts to embrace cloud infrastructure platforms such as Amazon Web Services, but such platforms still act as a threat to traditional storage sales. IBM's Q1 report is due on April 18. Comment! [Tech]
Wednesday, March 27, 1:51 PM Equinix (EQIX -0.1%) partners with NetApp (NTAP +0.9%) to support a hybrid cloud storage solution that uses a combo of privately-managed NetApp hardware and Amazon Web Services (AWS). The partnership, which comes a few months after NetApp and Amazon struck a partnership, drives home NetApp's interest in making the most out of AWS even as its use (in standard public cloud deployments) threatens sales of NetApp hardware. Separately, Equinix announces it's building a third IBX data center in Singapore. Comment! [Tech]
Saturday, March 16, 12:06 PM "A retailer (Amazon), an entertainment company (Netflix), an advertiser (Google), a résumé site (LinkedIn), and an address book (Facebook) have ended up shaping the future of [tech] infrastructure," writes a bemused Ashlee Vance. Unsatisfied with the solutions offered by the likes of IBM, HPQ, EMC, NTAP, and ORCL, Web giants have used home-grown hardware and open-source software projects to fulfill their needs. Their ideas and technology are already upending the server industry ... and their impact stands to grow as more companies buy in. 15 Comments [Tech]
Tuesday, February 19, 2:20 PM NetApp (NTAP -0.6%) unveils the EF540, its first storage system specifically built to use flash memory. However, the system doesn't use NetApp's Data ONTAP OS, but the SANtricity OS, which is used in a storage line acquired from LSI. FlashRay, a next-gen flash architecture supporting a slew of high-end features, will arrive in early 2014. Though NetApp's flash-related sales have grown quickly, the lack of a purpose-built flash system has been seen as a weakness, particularly following 2012 acquisitions (I, II) from EMC and IBM. (Flash Accel) (FIO partnership) Comment! [Tech]
Thursday, February 14, 12:59 PM More on NetApp: The company also disclosed the acquisition of ionGrid, a developer of iOS apps that enable secure access to corporate files. The purchase is off the beaten path for NetApp, which typically doesn't sell apps for client devices. But archrival EMC is making a push in this space, courtesy of online/mobile file-syncing platform Syncplicity. Also, EMC-controlled VMware (like other major IT software names) offers mobile file-sharing tools, via its Horizon Suite. Comment! [Tech]
Thursday, February 14, 12:46 PM NetApp (NTAP -1.7%) is lower after beating FQ3 estimates and issuing in-line FQ4 revenue guidance. FQ3 product gross margin fell 50 bps Q/Q to 53.1% (services margin rose), OEM revenue (much of it involves IBM) fell 17% Y/Y, and management noted it's seeing a mix shift towards "low-end platforms." However, shipments of high-end clustered systems rose 70% Q/Q, and bookings for systems with flash memory rose 67%. Piper thinks share losses to EMC are narrowing - on the call, a Credit Suisse analyst seemed worried about market share trends. (transcript) Comment! [Tech, Earnings]
Wednesday, February 13, 4:28 PM More on NetApp (NTAP): FQ3 beats across the board. Net earnings jumped 32% Y/Y as the company's smaller software and services segments made up for a slight decline in product sales. For the current quarter, the company sees revenue in a range of $1.7B to $1.8B, and earnings per share in a range of $0.65 to $0.70, above Street consensus for an EPS of $0.65 on revenue of $1.75B. Comment! [Tech, Earnings]
Wednesday, February 13, 4:23 PM NetApp (NTAP): FQ3 of $0.67 beats by $0.11. Revenue of $1.63B (+4.4% Y/Y) beats by $10M. (PR) Shares +1% AH. Comment! [Tech, Earnings, Breaking News]

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