I know this has been posted, but wanted to get the threads thoughts on DELL's growth in Asia.
How significant is the move to Singapore?
Understand that the direct model is taking off in China, but what about other countries?
Is DELL taking market share in Asia?
Fez
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Thursday August 19, 4:28 am Eastern Time
(Note: this article is ``in progress'; there will likely be an update soon.)
Dell to shift Asia headquarters to S'pore
SINGAPORE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp plans to move its Asia headquarters to Singapore from Hong Kong, Morton Topfer, vice chairman of Dell Computer Corp said on Thursday.
Topfer told a news conference the company was in negotiations with Singapore's Economic Development Board about expanding its capability in the city-state.
``We are having discussions with the Singapore government about expanding our capability and infrastructure in Singapore to take advantage of a lot of the technological advantages that exist here,' he said.
He said Dell, which employs about 130 people in Singapore, was set to increase its staff numbers substantially as it worked towards being the number one personal computer company in Asia in the next three to four years.
Dell, which started its Asia Pacific operations about four years ago, was ranked seventh in Asia.
John Legere, who oversees Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa, said Hong Kong was not the city to provide Dell with ``centricity or the economic incentives to scale its business.'
He said Hong Kong would remain a sales office for the China region and all main technical support staff were now in Singapore.
Penang, Malaysia would remain Dell's main manufacturing hub in Asia supplying products to the region including Japan.
``Singapore will be where we put all our central staff and it will also be where we put some of the higher technical capabilities including the hub of our Internet activities,' Legere.
He said Dell was negotiating to set up a web server farm in Singapore and that it would be the hub of the firm's business.
Dell now has a Web farm in Tokyo.
Legere also said that he expected Dell's two manufacturing plants in Asia, in Penang and in China's Xiamen, would be scalable to meet the company's rapid growth in the next three to five years.
Dell, which just announced a 58 percent jump in second quarter earnings, said shipment growth in the Asia Pacific and Japan continued to outpace the industry as the company's revenue rose 52 percent.
Dell sales in China, where it has employed its direct business model for just three quarters, were one third higher than those recorded during the first three months of the year.
Legere said Dell's operations in China were already profitable. |
