On July 22, 2015, the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of EMC’s second quarter results opened with the sentence “EMC Corp. … the data-storage company.” This is just not an accurate description of EMC. The Wall Street Journal is not the only media outlet that continues to misrepresent EMC. The representation that EMC is just a “data-storage company” is just simply not accurate.
While EMC’s traditional business is undoubtedly based on selling data storage systems (and continues to represent a majority of its revenue,) EMC is not just a data storage company.
In the last 10 years, EMC has branched out to data management, enterprise content management, Big Data, cloud, along with virtualized and converged infrastructure.
A significant part of EMC today is essentially multiple exciting startups inside a well-managed, well-funded, mature technology vendor. The question is who’s responsible for this lack of understanding?
Anyone who has attended an EMC World over the last several years as I have, clearly sees a new EMC. Storage infrastructure provides the foundation on which these new internal startups are built. The messaging that EMC has been promoting also clearly identify the new EMC. EMC’s customers also see the breadth of new, and expanded solutions that they offer.
So, I come back to the business press. I believe that many reporters are lackadaisical in their portrayal of EMC, and that is not doing EMC, nor its investors, any good. The focus the business press has placed on EMC’s majority ownership of VMware and its impact on EMC’s financials is only one aspect of the broader picture.
The business press’ failure to recognize the breadth and comprehensiveness of EMC’s offerings dilutes the value of EMC, and the contemporary business it is today. Business reporters, wake up!