Compaq reports 26 percent jump in Asian sales

SINGAPORE--Compaq Computer Asia-Pacific announced its largest quarterly revenue ever, a growth of 26 percent year over year to $684 million for the fourth quarter ended in December.

The company last month reported global revenue of $11.5 billion.

"We were indeed very profitable and doing more than our fair share in contributing to the company," Compaq Asia-Pacific Vice President Paul Chan said at a press briefing. Chan said 58 percent of the quarter's sales were generated outside the United States.

Japan led the way, up 36 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 1999, followed closely by Asia-Pacific, which rose 26 percent year over year.

Latin America grew 24 percent; greater China came in at 16 percent; North America sales were up 10 percent; and Europe grew 3 percent.

For fiscal year 2000, Compaq Asia-Pacific's revenue totaled $2.5 billion, up 23 percent from 1999, Chan said. This represents almost 6 percent of Compaq's global sales of $42.4 billion.

Operating profit for Asia-Pacific was also said to be up 46 percent from a year ago.

"We have to focus on revenues beyond the box," Chan said when asked how Compaq hoped to retain its market position in Asia-Pacific. "The fact is, we're not only in PC boxes and devices, but also in selling services and delivering content."

This was reflected in the performance of the company's business units, he said. Compaq's consumer unit grew 103 percent for the year, "propelled by the adoption of our new Presario PCs across the region," Chan said. Meanwhile, the Intel server unit was up 64 percent in 2000; business-critical servers were up 24 percent; the commercial group grew 15 percent; storage unit sales were up 4 percent, and global services grew by 2 percent.

Korea was Compaq's biggest market in the region, growing 120 percent for the year. India came in second, up 56 percent.

Singapore.CNET.com's Michelle Tan reported from Singapore.