October 8, 1999
Dell Offers Computer Rebates
With Purchase of Web Service
By a WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
AUSTIN, Texas -- Dell Computer Corp., joining the ranks of computer makers providing discounts for Internet service, is offering a $400 personal-computer rebate with the purchase of a three-year, Dellnet Internet-service contract.
Paul Bell, senior vice president at the Round Rock, Texas, company, said the rebate offer would allow customers who purchase the service to upgrade to high-speed access.
Company Profile: Dell Computer
Dell's move is a belated response to the success of such rebate programs in selling PCs to new customers. Earlier this year, the company began offering its own Internet access service for $129 a year.
Separately, company executives expressed optimism that PC-component shortages and price increases related to the earthquake that hit Taiwan last month wouldn't adversely affect Dell. Chief Executive Michael S. Dell, who recently returned from Asia, told Wall Street analysts, "We're feeling quite good about how we've come out of this situation."
Dell shares rose $1.0625 to $44.375 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading Thursday.
Mr. Dell also said the company hasn't changed its earnings outlook for the fiscal third quarter since its August discussions with analysts. (A First Call/Thomson Financial survey forecasts earnings of 20 cents a share for the quarter ended Oct. 31.) Mr. Dell said the company's notebook sales are constrained more by industrywide shortages of flat-panel displays than by effects of the earthquake.
He said Dell has been able to get preferential treatment from suppliers because of its purchasing volumes. The shortages are likely to be felt most severely by smaller companies, he said.
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