Ira -
RE: Dell's growth is at the pig's expense!!
Not necessarily, and not what it looked like from the 2Q IDC numbers. Looks like the big 4 are squeezing out everyone else.
The reason DELL's number, and positive CC, are good for CPQ -
1 - MSD says that he sees no slowdown, and maybe a boost, from Y2K. If so, then CPQ will see the traditional year end sales boost. That's a brighter outlook than taking yet another hit from a Y2K lockdown.
2 - Enterprise business continued to grow strongly. Again, that indicates a stronger market in the high margin, high-end products, where CPQ outsells DELL 4 to 1. Good for DELL but also good for CPQ - it means the customers are still buying in that critical segment.
Over the last few months we have seen both DELL and CPQ languish, partly from a sense that the computer business was slowing and that there was little these companies could do to change that. Now DELL has painted a different picture of the outlook for 2H99, and that will change expectations for CPQ performance as well. |
