Dell to Lay Off 10 Percent of Workforce

Outsource tech support to Dilbert's Elbonia and manufacturing to Papua
New Guinea. Macs are starting to look better all the time

Dell to Lay Off 10 Percent of Workforce
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2140070,00.asp

SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 (Reuters) - Dell Inc. unveiled on Thursday
quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts' expectations and
plans to cut about 10 percent of its work force, sending its shares up 6
percent.

The after-hours stock price topped a 12-month high set in November.
Apart from the results and job cuts, investors were also encouraged as
the No. 2 personal computer maker said customers bought more-expensive
systems and component prices fell in the quarter, helping profit margins.

"The results are way better than expected," said American Technology
Research analyst Shaw Wu, who rates Dell shares as neutral. "They are
surprisingly strong in the U.S. enterprise market given that the
environment is somewhat mixed."

Recent reports by market research firms Gartner and IDC had indicated
Dell's personal computer sales would be worse, he added.

The job cuts, which would translate into about 8,800 of its 82,800
permanent employees and 5,300 temporary staff, would take place over the
next year, and Dell said the cuts would vary across regions, customer
segments and functions.

Fiscal first-quarter net income fell to $759 million, or 34 cents per
share, from $762 million, or 33 cents per share, reported a year
earlier. Dell said the first-quarter and year-ago quarter's figures were
subject to restatement as regulators have been investigating its
accounting practices for almost two years.

Revenue rose to $14.6 billion from $14.2 billion reported a year
earlier. The results beat the average forecasts of analysts polled by
Reuters Estimates, who had expected earnings of 26 cents per share and
revenue of $13.9 billion.

Earnings and revenue at Dell had been shrinking as rival Hewlett-Packard
Co. extended its PC market-share lead by selling more laptops and
printers in stores and expanding overseas, taking the title of market
leader from Dell.

Founder Michael Dell, 42, retook the CEO job in January after sales
growth slumped and the company's past accounting came under scrutiny by
federal regulators and prosecutors.

The company said last week it would break from its 23-year-old practice
of selling directly to customers via the Internet or phone and would
sell low-priced PCs at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in North America beginning
June 10.

Dell said on Thursday no determination had been made whether
restatements of prior results would be required because of the
accounting reviews. Thomas Luce III, chairman of the Dell board
committee auditing the company's accounting, said the review was "taking
us longer than we would have liked."

Dell stock rose to $28.58 from a close of $26.91 on Nasdaq, where they
had gained 2.6 percent in regular-session trading.

For its second fiscal quarter, Dell expects operating profit margins to
be "under pressure" compared to the first quarter as the period
typically has slower sales and Dell sees higher costs from both
operations and the investigations.

Full-year results may be hurt by "transformational actions, changing
competitive dynamics, a more aggressive pricing environment" and higher
second-half component costs, it said.

ACCOUNTING CONCERNS

Dell said in March an internal audit found evidence of misconduct,
accounting errors and deficiencies in its financial controls. The
investigations have kept Dell from filing results with the Securities
and Exchange Commission for last year's second and third fiscal quarters
as well as its annual report.

Dell disclosed last August that the SEC had been pursuing an informal
inquiry of its accounting for a year. The SEC review became formal in
November, and the Justice Department joined the probe.

Dell benefited in the first quarter from PC component price cuts that
also helped rivals including Apple Inc. and HP. Prices have fallen
sharply for components such as memory chips, hard-disk drives and
flat-screen display monitors, analysts and company executives have said.

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:35:43 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

Outsource tech support to Dilbert's Elbonia and manufacturing to Papua
New Guinea. Macs are starting to look better all the time


Old news but if you believe a MAC is better don't tell us till after
you bought it; then you can speak from experience instead of theory.

For others still interested in Dells, I just got this email that Dell
is having a 4 Day Sale. Go to their web site for details.

RnR wrote:
On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:35:43 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

Outsource tech support to Dilbert's Elbonia and manufacturing to Papua
New Guinea. Macs are starting to look better all the time


Old news but if you believe a MAC is better don't tell us till after
you bought it; then you can speak from experience instead of theory.

For others still interested in Dells, I just got this email that Dell
is having a 4 Day Sale. Go to their web site for details.

I haven't bought one as yet, am waiting to see what comes out of the
WWDC starting 11 Jun and will go from there.

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:39:00 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

RnR wrote:
On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:35:43 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

Outsource tech support to Dilbert's Elbonia and manufacturing to Papua
New Guinea. Macs are starting to look better all the time


Old news but if you believe a MAC is better don't tell us till after
you bought it; then you can speak from experience instead of theory.

For others still interested in Dells, I just got this email that Dell
is having a 4 Day Sale. Go to their web site for details.

I haven't bought one as yet, am waiting to see what comes out of the
WWDC starting 11 Jun and will go from there.

Thanks and keep us posted. I don't think MACs are worst than Dell nor
do I think they're better but MAC people will fight to the death to
convince others so. Sometimes I think they're delusional but I won't
get into that. Whatever you decide, hope it works for you.

Yikes, both CSRs are gone!


--

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like,
and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.

....J. R. R. Tolkien

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:27:31 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:39:00 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

RnR wrote:
On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:35:43 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

Outsource tech support to Dilbert's Elbonia and manufacturing to Papua
New Guinea. Macs are starting to look better all the time


Old news but if you believe a MAC is better don't tell us till after
you bought it; then you can speak from experience instead of theory.

For others still interested in Dells, I just got this email that Dell
is having a 4 Day Sale. Go to their web site for details.

I haven't bought one as yet, am waiting to see what comes out of the
WWDC starting 11 Jun and will go from there.

Thanks and keep us posted. I don't think MACs are worst than Dell nor
do I think they're better but MAC people will fight to the death to
convince others so. Sometimes I think they're delusional but I won't
get into that. Whatever you decide, hope it works for you.

I like the form factor of the Mac Books, but when it first came out
there were a lot of complaints of problems caused by heat problems. A
salesperson at Comp USA who loves Macs admitted that some internal
component of his melted, and there are also reports of these problems
in user forums. It doesn't surprise me because when I had a Mac
laptop a few years ago (Power PC chip tho) it was unbearably hot. It
didn't take long for me to return it.

The bottom line for me is whether a computer runs the software I want
it to. The Mac doesn't run most of the programs that I find the
useful other than Office and Quicken.

I also happen to like Windows better than the Mac OS -- how the
interface can be customized in so many ways. About the only thing I
like better about the Mac OS is that I think it would be more stable
-- less instances of things like processes needing to be terminated,
freeze-ups, and things like that. Windows, from XP on though, for my
level of being able to fix things, does OK on that front. For users
who don't know how to diagnose and fix problems, a Mac with hardware
targeted towards for the Mac might be the most reliable solution.

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:01:30 -0500, Journey wrote:

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 15:27:31 -0500, RnR wrote:

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 14:39:00 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

RnR wrote:
On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 11:35:43 -0400, Jim Higgins
wrote:

Outsource tech support to Dilbert's Elbonia and manufacturing to Papua
New Guinea. Macs are starting to look better all the time


Old news but if you believe a MAC is better don't tell us till after
you bought it; then you can speak from experience instead of theory.

For others still interested in Dells, I just got this email that Dell
is having a 4 Day Sale. Go to their web site for details.

I haven't bought one as yet, am waiting to see what comes out of the
WWDC starting 11 Jun and will go from there.

Thanks and keep us posted. I don't think MACs are worst than Dell nor
do I think they're better but MAC people will fight to the death to
convince others so. Sometimes I think they're delusional but I won't
get into that. Whatever you decide, hope it works for you.

I like the form factor of the Mac Books, but when it first came out
there were a lot of complaints of problems caused by heat problems. A
salesperson at Comp USA who loves Macs admitted that some internal
component of his melted, and there are also reports of these problems
in user forums. It doesn't surprise me because when I had a Mac
laptop a few years ago (Power PC chip tho) it was unbearably hot. It
didn't take long for me to return it.

The bottom line for me is whether a computer runs the software I want
it to. The Mac doesn't run most of the programs that I find the
useful other than Office and Quicken.

I also happen to like Windows better than the Mac OS -- how the
interface can be customized in so many ways. About the only thing I
like better about the Mac OS is that I think it would be more stable
-- less instances of things like processes needing to be terminated,
freeze-ups, and things like that. Windows, from XP on though, for my
level of being able to fix things, does OK on that front. For users
who don't know how to diagnose and fix problems, a Mac with hardware
targeted towards for the Mac might be the most reliable solution.


Thanks Journey for the information. Sounds like you seen it from
both sides and are more objective than the MAC people. I admit I
don't have MAC experience but I really don't see XP and Dell as a bad
combo. It's been good for me so far.

thanks again.

On Fri, 01 Jun 2007 18:02:45 -0500, RnR wrote:

I also happen to like Windows better than the Mac OS -- how the
interface can be customized in so many ways. About the only thing I
like better about the Mac OS is that I think it would be more stable
-- less instances of things like processes needing to be terminated,
freeze-ups, and things like that. Windows, from XP on though, for my
level of being able to fix things, does OK on that front. For users
who don't know how to diagnose and fix problems, a Mac with hardware
targeted towards for the Mac might be the most reliable solution.


Thanks Journey for the information. Sounds like you seen it from
both sides and are more objective than the MAC people. I admit I
don't have MAC experience but I really don't see XP and Dell as a bad
combo. It's been good for me so far.

thanks again.

Actually a lot of Mac people would call me names other than objective
:-)

I root for Apple and want them to do well, one reason why I
periodically look at the Apple laptops. I also like to understand
things -- like many geeks. One reason why I've dipped into both Palms
and Pocket PCs in the past.

Apple's new OS due out in October looks pretty good. Maybe I will get
a Mac mini or find out what Mac TV is all about and if it's a computer
get one of those.

Software really hurts the Mac. Many business users use MS Project or
some other Microsoft or other software program at work that's not
compatible with the Mac.

A strong point of the Mac is supposed to be the bundled software that
comes with it -- for creating DVD movies for example. I haven't
played around with it enough to know how good it is, but I have heard
mostly positives.

Macs are a great choice for people who want a simple, stable system
with less problems than Windows. My brother set my mother up with a
Mac and she was able to use it (mostly). She wouldn't have been able
to handle Windows, and he would have been over there much more
frequently fixing problems for her if she had a Windows PC.

Since I ventured into holy war territory I had to say some really
positive things about the Mac :-)

"Steve" wrote in message
...

Yikes, both CSRs are gone!




^^^Stand back, he's on a roll. ^^^^^^^