Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Aaron Rakers – Wachovia.
Aaron Rakers – Wachovia
Maybe if you could expand on some of the business push outs that you saw at the end of September and maybe what the trends have looked like thus far in October. Specifically I guess I’m a little bit confused in the commentary that some of the weakness that you saw was more predicated towards the SMB and commercial markets. However, it looks like your Symmetrix business was a little bit weaker than what I had anticipated. If you could help me understand that commentary as it relates to the Symmetrix results as well.
Joe Tucci
What I tried to cover in my remarks, maybe I didn’t do it well enough is that I said yes for sure we saw weakness in the SMB and the commercial markets and I gave you two reasons why I think mostly everybody is kind of being very cautious now with their spending and keeping their money close. Second, there were customers we had that are having trouble in the financing.
I did point out two examples on the enterprise side and our bigger account side both in financial institutions which are obviously going through some pretty traumatic times and there’s been a tremendous wave of consolidation there. Of course that affects Symmetrix.
I also pointed out that there were several large deals around other areas other than finance where customers took a more conservative view and gave us either a smaller order or priority order as they also try to keep some of their powder dry and be flexible in these uncertain times. We did see it in both markets. We did experience it most of the quarter.
Operator
Your next question comes from David Bailey - Goldman Sachs.
David Bailey - Goldman Sachs
I was wondering if you could give us some idea of the timing on the cost reduction initiatives and maybe some idea of what the magnitude there could be.
Joe Tucci
Not yet, were in the middle of the work but obviously we’re realists. We gave you our best forecast for Q4. I also said that I felt I believed fully, I don’t duck out on things that this economic is going to continue in 2009. We’ve got to see what that all means for us but obviously it means that we got to make sure that we have a core structure that’s commensurate with what is going forward and we will do that.
- To read the full transcript on Seeking Alpha, click here »
