back to article Pure pleasure with stonking final fiscal 2016 quarter

It was pure pleasure as Pure Storage reported a final fiscal 2016 quarter with revenues up higher than expected and losses down. The company reported fourth-quarter revenues of $150.2m, a 128 per cent increase from the year-ago quarter and a 14 per cent rise from the third quarter's $131.4m. There was a net loss of ‑$44.3 …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Congrats to Pure!

    Great numbers! Where are the Storage Zombies to post?

    I've come to the realization, there are 3 new companies that worth a lick, these are Pure, Nutanix and Nimble. The rest are just noise. The large vendors are too weak and their only response is to fight new technology with price but pricing is not a long term strategy. It's just a tactic.

    1. Nate Amsden

      Re: Congrats to Pure!

      Wake me when the combined revenues of these and other startups get close to what EMC does in profits.

      What you're saying has been said for at leat 10 or 15 years and little has changed

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Congrats to Pure!

        Classy.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Uh yeah...

    "...each initial $1 spent on Pure Storage led to greater than $12 in the next 18 months."

    OK, we get it, the first hit's free.

    I've seen some amazing discounts on Pure quotes for new customers. All I can say is, you'd better buy what you need the first time because you're going to pay through the teeth for expansion later on. And no, I'm not picking on Pure, they are far from alone playing this game. That marketing quote just stuck out as something most people would view as amazing; I prefer to view it as confirmation that the discounts going in are pretty steep compared to the next dollars you'll be handing them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Uh yeah...

      Dude,

      If you think that the math of for every $1 spent is followed by an additional $12 later is bogus then you don't know customer behavior. Your basically argue that customers somehow gets a deal on the first order but not on subsequent orders...? Then you don't know much about business and price precedent. Discounts to large and sophisticated buyers stay flat over the year, or it may even increase with increased purchasing. But if you think a big enterprise will every agree to pay more for subsequent purchases then you're smoking something... This is especially not true for sophisticated purchasers with procurement teams that really pay attention to t's and c's.

      Just take a peak at gross project margin, there clearly isn't much of buying business going on.

      I'm just saying that the logic you argue isn't how the real world works, and the q4 as well as annual results undermine your thesis.

      Even if they gave away the first array for free, it's clear that customers finds enough value that they increase spending with pure.

      For the poster arguing the profit of emc being bigger than all of the startups combined... That was Ken Olsen's argument back in the digital equipment (DEC) days. Hyperbole that had no relevance as to picking winners and losers. If emc is so great, why are the board and the shareholders recommending that the best strategic move they can make is divest and sell the company and cash in the chips..? Doesn't seem like a huge belief that they can win on their own merit. EMC isn't merging with Dell, EMC is selling itself to Dell where Dell outright are purchasing all outstanding EMC shares.

      1. bitpushr

        Re: Uh yeah...

        If that $1 and its subsequent $12 customer purchase are costing Pure $20 to fulfill, well, I'm sure you can see where this is going.

      2. dpk

        Re: Uh yeah...

        AC - your omments here around customer's procurement methods are sound, as customers are generally pretty good at ensuring they get good prices initially and subsequently. But that's where your logic stops. Gross Product Margins are indeed good at Pure - as are most vendor's gross product margins. But you've neglected to address the negative operating margin (Rolex anyone). And whilst the net losses for the quarter WERE lower, they are still significant. Burning cash at a pretty good rate.

        They really need step up the momentum AND maintain it if they want outrun the losses they're still incurring. As like most vendors, there's a point when the growth tapers off. Add into the mix competition from HP, Nimble and EMC ..... and its hard to see how these guys are going to turn (not return) this business into a profit making machine ; currently, the share price is driven by the hype and looks like a lousy investment to me.

        Time to stop giving away Rolexs boys. Wonder what their customers think of that ?

        And regarding your comments about EMC "selling itself" and cashing in the chips, you're kidding yourself if you think these start-ups are going to out-run EMC. Not only is EMC the biggest in the game, they've got the cash, the portfolio and the sales reach. Now Dell is taking them private, they're not going to be smashed by Wall Street as they navigate their way through all this change. And they are certainly not divesting the business. How do you figure that ? The company will remain intact and in fact becomes the largest IT company in the world. How is that divesting itself ? The semantics of being sold, bought, merged don't really matter. Both companies agreed to it and the customers appear to be pumped - so whats the issue ?

        And that's what happens when you buy a public company btw - you purchase the shares of the company you're buying.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Uh yeah...

          Wow. Looks like a jilted lover or an EMC employee.

          EMC did tap out and is suffering the same issues that HPE and NetApp also have. Yes they are trying to re-invent themselves and hopefully they do because they have all been rocks of the industry.

          Keep up with the EMC/Dell Humour. The rest of the industry get a great laugh out of EMCer's trying to rationalise how their once great company is being dismantled.

          1. dpk

            Re: Uh yeah...

            EMC tapped out ? Is being dismantled ? You're not too bright fella.

            1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. MortenMadsen

      Re: Uh yeah...

      Pure is not cheap, but after our initial purchase (summer 2013) the cost pr. GiB for each expansion has never gone up.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Happy Customers buy more

    to the EMC folk lobbing hand grenades, Pure folk thank you for driving customers to them.

    let's see how Nimble's numbers fair tomorrow but regardless, Today is a great day for Storage Startup's who are proving the age of the storage dinosaurs is all but over

    1. dpk

      Re: Happy Customers buy more

      Surprise Surprise, Nimble reports another loss, blames "seasonality" and the stock tanks.

      Go you Unicorns, Go!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The pure storage trick playing with the non-gaap results has been deeply reviewed on http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/02/23/competitors-and-cash-bleed-put-pressure-on-pure-storage/#5a8b5ff1658e

    I wouldn't put a single dollar on a vendor where internal costs and operations are much more than profits...

    On the other hand technically speaking AFA are fireworks when hyperconvergetion is already here to stay like a big lighthouse to stay. So pure will enter on more difficulties as everybody has an AFA but trend has surpassed this quickly to a more powered concept in which pure has just ....nothing

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