Storage vendor EMC's revenue in the second quarter of this year was up from the preceding quarter but still substantially lower than it was during the same period last year. The company announced its 2Q 2009 earnings as well as closing of its acquisition of deduplication technology developer Data Domain on Thursday.

EMC VP and CFO David Goulden, in a statement, attributed slow revenue growth to the continuing slump in the amount of IT spending but added that growth that did take place signaled beginning of a recovery.

"While global conditions remain challenging and our full-year view of declining IT spending remains unchanged, EMC's second-quarter financial performance reflects customers' budget stabilization and improved business predictability," Goulden said. "Our sustained focus on cost containment and operational efficiency helped drive sequential growth in our Information Infrastructure gross and operating margins."

The company's total 2Q revenue was $3.26 billion, net income totaling $205.5 million. The results represented a three-percent increase in revenue and a six-percent increase in net income from 1Q.

EMC experienced an 11 percent drop in total revenue from the same quarter last year.

2Q earnings per share stood at $0.10. EMC's year-to-date operating cash flow was $1.44 billion and free cash flow (cash remaining after capital expenditures) was about $1.1 billion.

Bulk of the 2Q revenue ($2.8 billion) was attributable to the company's storage, security and content management and archiving businesses. Virtualization technology developer VMware - majority owned by EMC - contributed $455 million to the quarter's revenue.

Half of the revenue was generated in the U.S.

After completing its tender offer for all outstanding shares of Data Domain common stock, EMC now controls about 94 percent of the deduplication vendor's outstanding shares.

EMC acquired Data Domain after outbidding one of its direct competitors NetApp, with whom Data Domain had a standing agreement that had to be annulled when its management decided to go with EMC as the purchaser. Data Domain paid a $57 million "break-up" fee to get out of the NetApp deal.