EMC's biggest business area, storage systems, posted a 10 percent revenue gain, with software license and maintenance revenue rising 18 percent. Revenue from a segment that includes professional services and systems maintenance posted 30 percent revenue growth.

EMC shares rose 81 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $16.40 in premarket trading.

"EMC is off to a solid start to the year, and we remain on track to achieve the 2008 financial targets we set for the business at the beginning of the year," said Joe Tucci, chairman, president and chief executive of EMC, whose rivals include IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Network Appliance Inc.

EMC reported earnings a day after VMware Inc., a storage software maker in which EMC holds a majority ownership stake, said its first-quarter profit rose 5 percent, as corporate and international sales headed higher. VMware posted a 69 percent revenue gain on Tuesday, reflecting strong growth for VMware's virtualization software, which allows a computer to act like multiple machines, each with its own operating system and software.

EMC's stock broke out of a yearslong slump last year amid August's initial public offering of VMware, in which EMC sold a 10 percent stake. VMware's growth prospects sent EMC's shares briefly above $25 apiece in late October, but the stock has recently hovered around the $15 level - the same as about a year ago - amid a downturn in the broader economy, and after the emergence of new rivals to VMware.

EMC's first-quarter acquisition-related charges stem from the latest of a string of deals to expand beyond EMC's core business of supplying hardware that stores troves of data for large corporate customers. The latest deal, announced April 8, was EMC's $213 million purchase of Iomega Corp., which will expand EMC's offerings targeting small businesses and consumers.