Dell Sees 30 Percent Revenue Growth
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Revenue growth lagged in the second quarter but Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) was ``still on track'' to increase revenues 30 percent this year, Dell vice chairman Kevin Rollins said Thursday.
``The guidance we gave in our Q2 earnings of having 30 percent growth rate for the year is something we're comfortable with and still on track to do,'' Rollins told Reuters at the Dell DirectConnect conference for customers and suppliers.
After failing to meet 40 percent growth forecasts earlier in the year, Dell lowered everyone's expectations to 30 percent for the full year. Those figures have been watched closely by the financial world since Dell reported growth of just 25 percent in the second quarter.
But chairman Michael Dell said Thursday things were looking good because demand for personal computers was strong and component prices were dropping because a predicted parts shortage failed to materialize.
Dell's revenues last year were $25.3 billion.
Analysts are hoping Dell will boost its European business, which has traditionally grown at a much slower rate than the rest of the company. Last quarter, revenues were up 10 percent in the region.
Rollins repeated an earlier forecast that Dell would see better results in Europe in the fourth quarter and said there were already signs lagging corporate demand there was on the upswing.
``The corporate demand throughout the year has been slow, but we're seeing signs that it's turning around and that it's picking up,'' he said.
Rollins said that, globally, corporate demand, which is about 2/3 of Dell's business, had been strong all year.
``It has never really slowed down. It's been doing very well and it's not a factor in the kind of revenue mess that we had (earlier). I think corporate business is in pretty good shape,'' he said.
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