US technology and healthcare companies reported mixed quarterly results yesterday, with Xerox worrying the market with reports that sales proved difficult to complete in the first three months of the year.

The world's biggest maker of office copiers and printers, which employs almost 1,900 people in Ireland, said first-quarter profit fell as revenue declined, but sales of its lucrative digital colour equipment systems improved.

Net income before payment of preferred dividends was $220 million (€169 million). After those payments, Xerox's net income was $196 million, or 20 cents a share, in line with forecasts but down on the 25 cents a share a year earlier.

Drug giant Schering-Plough, which employs 1,200 people in Dublin and Wicklow, issued upbeat results as two new cholesterol drugs boosted sales and took profit ahead of expectations. Schering-Plough earned $105 million, or seven cents per share, compared with a loss of $73 million, or five cents per share, in the 2004 period. Excluding special items, the drugmaker earned nine cents per share - well above the average forecast of two cents per share.

Rival Merck said first-quarter profit fell 15 per cent following the withdrawal of its arthritis drug Vioxx last year.

Net profit at the group, which has 460 staff in Ireland, fell to $1.37 billion, or 62 cents a share, from $1.62 billion, or 73 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales fell 5 per cent to $5.4 billion from $5.6 billion. Excluding year-earlier Vioxx sales, sales rose 8 per cent.

Medical devices group Guidant, which has a plant in Clonmel employing close to 1,000 people, said profits rose 16 per cent in the period helped by sales on implantable cardioverter defibrillators. The company, which has agreed to merge with rival Johnson & Johnson in a $25.4 billion deal reported profit after tax of $162.3 million, or 49 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter, from $139.4 million, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier.

Online auction house eBay, which employs more than 200 people in Dublin, posted a 28 per cent increase in quarterly net profit but forecast future profits at or below Wall Street estimates amid concerns of slower growth.

First-quarter profits came in at $256.3 million, or 19 cents a share, compared with $200.1 million, or 15 cents a share, last year.

While many companies would envy the 36 per cent year-on-year net revenue growth eBay posted in the first quarter, analysts and investors noted that the comparable rate had been 44 per cent in the previous quarter.