Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our second quarter 2012 operating results. In the second quarter, our team continued to execute well, generated solid sales and earnings growth despite slowing demand and continued macroeconomic uncertainty globally.
Specifically, consolidated net sales increased 4% to $1.53 billion, up from $1.47 billion in the second quarter of 2011, and on a constant currency basis, consolidated net sales grew 7%. Gross profit was $201.3 million, down 1% year-over-year, and gross margin was 13.2%, down from 13.9% in the second quarter of 2011.
Earnings from operations increased 2% to $55.3 million, or 3.6% of net sales, compared to 54.4 million, or 3.7% of net sales reported in the second quarter of 2011. Excluding the effect of currency movements in the quarter, earnings from operations were up 4%.
Net earnings were flat year-to-year, at 35.3 million, while diluted earnings per share increased to $.79 in the second quarter of 2012, compared to $.75 in the second quarter of 2011. And we achieved return on invested capital of 11%.
Within our consolidated results for the second quarter, our North America segment reported a flat sales performance year-to-year, as strong performance in our software category offset declines in hardware and services sales. The software sales growth was driven by increased demand for office productivity applications across the large and mid-market and public sector client groups. Hardware and services sales declined year-to-year, due to the effect of large engagements concluded in Q4 of 2011, that have not been fully replaced in 2012, though hardware sales grew 10% sequentially, and by product category, sales of server and storage, networking and notebooks and desktops strengthened quarter-to-quarter.
In EMEA, we saw sales growth of 24% in constant currency in the second quarter. Also in constant currency, software sales increased 20% and services sales increased 22% due to higher volume with existing, and new client engagements. And we reported 35% growth in constant currency in our hardware category, due to the acquisition of Inmac in February 2012, and organic growth of approximately 11% year-over-year. The Inmac acquisition is performing to our expectations, and we expect increased contribution from this business in future quarters as we complete our integration plan.
In Asia Pacific, sales increased 5% in constant currency in the second quarter. Low gross margin year-to-year was offset by strong expense management, which led to 5% earnings from operations growth in the quarter, also in constant currency.
I will now hand the call over to Glynis, who will discuss the second quarter operating results of our business segments.