Although Western Digital had to face hundreds of millions of dollars charges relative to Thailand flooding, the company remained profitable. Moreover, due to increased pricing of hard disk drives, its sales only dropped 19% amid 42% decline in unit shipments of HDDs.

On Monday, WD reported revenue of $2.0 billion, hard-drive unit shipments of 28.5 million and net income of $145 million, or $0.61 per share, for its second fiscal quarter ended December 30, 2011. Excluding charges and expenses related to the Thailand flooding and the planned acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (HGST), non-GAAP net income was $358 million, or $1.51 per share. During the quarter, the company incurred charges and expenses of $199 million related to the flooding and expenses of $14 million associated with the planned acquisition of Hitachi GST.

In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $2.5 billion, net income of $225 million, or $0.96 per share, and shipped 52.2 million hard drives. The company generated $378 million in cash from operations during the December quarter, ending with total cash and cash equivalents of $3.9 billion.

The hard drive maker also confirmed it has made significant additional progress to restore its manufacturing capacity following the recent flooding in Thailand. It has continued to ramp HDD production in Thailand and yesterday resumed slider production which had been suspended since October 10. WD reaffirmed that its manufacturing capacity will be back to pre-flood capabilities in the quarter ending September 2012.

"We have made substantial progress in restoring WD's manufacturing capabilities in the aftermath of the historic flooding in Thailand, and this is reflected in our second quarter financial results and in the resumption of our operations there. While much work remains to be done over the next several quarters to reach our pre-flood manufacturing capabilities, the progress thus far is significantly ahead of our original expectations and is a tribute to the dedicated and effective actions of our employees, contractors and Thai government agencies, the efforts of our supply partners and the support of our customers. We are grateful to all involved in this extraordinary effort," said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD.

The company's plan to complete the acquisition of HGST is on track to close by March 2012. The company continues to work on obtaining the regulatory approval of the transaction from the remaining government agencies.

Tags: WD, Western Digital, HDD, Business