Quantum leaps into loss

Increased software licence sales fail to offset falling hardware revenue

Quantum is doing well on data de-duplication and backup software

Storage hardware and software specialist Quantum posted a net loss of $14m (£7.1m) for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2009, with revenues down 10 per cent year on year to $222m (£112.1m).

Sales revenue from Quantum-branded storage devices and tape automation products was considerably down, while services revenue, including maintenance and installation contracts, remained flat at $42m (£21.2m).

But Quantum reported increased sales of disk systems, backup and storage management software, up 100 per cent to $18m (£9.1m) compared with the first quarter of 2008, partly on the back of a software licence agreement with storage giant EMC.

Quantum has partnership agreements with PC and server makers including Dell, HP, IBM and Sun Microsystems, as well as storage array vendors.