EMC baits IBM in storage row

Blue-chips resort to 'childish games'

Storage king EMC claims it is bigger and better than rival IBM, despite recently announcing a multitude of job losses and poor third quarter results. Speaking at an event held in London this week EMC's top executives fired a series of shots especially targeted at its arch-rival IBM. EMC's statements come soon after the company published disastrous third quarter results last month and promised to lay-off a total of 4,000 people. Executive chairman of EMC Mike Ruettgers said the company will continue with aggressive tactics to weather the storm: "We are going to carry on being aggressive, you don't get to be number one in the market for being kind to your competitors. Four years ago we swallowed 45 per cent of IBM's market share, you won't get that just for doing nothing," he said. EMC was also keen to comment on the IBM take over rumours. Ruettegers said: "It's like the game we used to play when we were kids, Chinese whispers. A year ago EMC was buying IBM and now it's the other way round. So that's how true it is." The company also boasted its Symmetrix storage range capacity of over five times the size of IBM's similar product. "Our Symmetrix device can hold 69.5 terabytes of data whereas IBM's similar device can only hold 13.8 terabytes," said the company's CTO James Rothnie. IBM dismissed EMC's bullish remarks and said the company is desperate to prove their worth:
"Their attitude smells of desperation. The whole storage industry thinks we are bigger than EMC and our sales and share price is to prove that," said the spokesman.