| Andreas, have you seen Dell's "90 days no payments" TY ads? In fact, I have seen both sets of ads, but Dells far more frequently. I think that in this case there is not a lesser of two evils, but a desire to clean the slate, the sooner the better. In my opinion, Dells ads may be reactionary to Compaq's and Gateway's, among others, since their quarter does not close until the end of the month, thereby putting additional pressure on margins given everyone else is clearing inventory. In fact, this quarter may be telling for Dell since they will have had December and January to contend with -- 66% of their quarter -- and I would be keen on watching the increase in A/R and investment income, plus any charges for investments in dot-zeros that have soured. |
