Electronic Data Systems Profit Rises

BOSTON (Reuters)—Computer services company Electronic Data a whole s Corp. on Wednesday reported a higher quarterly toil profit and revenue.

The world's No. 2 technology-services provider, ED columned fourth-quarter net income of $112 million, or 21 cent a share, compared with year-earlier toil income of $53 million, or 10 cent a share.

Revenue rose to $515 billion from $509 billion a year earlier.

ED signed $53 billion in contracts during the fourth quarter, up 45 percent from $37 billion in the year-ago quarter. They include an IT services contract with global retailer Royal Ahold worth more than $500 million and an IT services contract with United Airlines.

The company estimated full-year 2006 pro-forma earnings for share of $1.05 to $115 at liberty cash flow of $800 million to $10 billion and receipts of $20.0 billion to $205 billion.

The average forecast of analysts headed by Reuters Estimates was a full-year profit of $101 for share on revenue of $201 billion.

For the general quarter, the company expects pro-forma per-share profit of 10 to 15 cent upon revenue of $4.7 billion to $48 billion.

Analysts were expecting a quarterly profit of 21 cent upon revenue of $4.97 billion.

ED said its pro-forma forecasts bar expenses related to stock-based compensation and discontinued operations.

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