01/26 05:27
URL:http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_relnews.ht&s=APjO4BhSIRGVsbCBD
Dell Computer Had `Record' Sales Last Year, CEO Says (Update1)
By Michael McKee
Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Dell Computer Corp., the world's largest maker of personal computers, had ``record'' revenue last year, Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell said.
While some technology companies saw 2002 revenue fall by as much as 70 percent, ``we have already achieved our peak revenues and we are growing quite nicely,'' Dell said in an interview yesterday at the World Economic Forum.
``We were perhaps the only technology company to have record revenues,'' he said. In the fourth quarter ``we grew at a 23 percent premium to our market, so Dell had 24 percent unit growth, our industry had positive one percent.''
The CEO did not give a forecast for earnings in its most recent quarter, which ends Jan. 31. In November the company said fourth-quarter profit will be 23 cents a share on sales of $9.7 billion.
``Our operating income margin steadily increased just a little bit throughout this past year,'' Dell said. ``Expenses have been kept at a pretty steady level, actually trending a bit down.''
Productivity
The Round Rock, Texas-based company will continue to drive costs down ``as a way of stimulating our growth,'' Dell said. ``Employment has been growing a little bit, but not as fast as revenues, which means productivity.''
Michael Dell said the company doesn't contemplate reducing its workforce in the coming year, although ``you could have a situation where you have a growth in one area and maybe not so much growth in another, in terms of types of employees.''
Over the past year Dell has entered the hand-held computer market and plans to begin selling printers under its own name this year. Neither will contribute much to net income immediately, Dell said. ``Our main growth is coming from servers and storage, services, and geographic expansion,'' he said.
Hand-held devices are ``a very small market to begin with and they don't sell for much,'' he said. ``The relationship between the number of press articles and the revenue is completely out of whack.''
Still, ``it's a fast-growing market and we're a new entrant, so it can grow pretty quickly.''
Dell Printers
Lexmark International Inc., the No. 2 maker of printers for PCs, will make Dell products starting in the first half of the year.
``I don't know'' how many printers the company will sell, Dell said. ``Hopefully, a lot. We haven't given a projection, but we think we're going to be able to deliver a lot of value to customers there, just as we have with servers.'' Servers are computers that perform tasks such as running company networks and hosting Web sites.
The CEO said that while he expects the U.S. economy to strengthen as the year progresses, ``we're planning to grow irrespective of what happens in the macroeconomic environment. In the last nine quarters we've grown our units at a 20 percent or better premium to the market and our intention is to continue to grow faster than the market.''
The 37-year-old Dell, who founded his namesake company in 1984, said earnings will continue to grow.
``We're growing in all geographies, with all customers, in all product lines: servers storage desktops consumer, large businesses small businesses, Europe is growing, Asia is growing, North America is growing,'' he said.
Shares of Austin, Texas-based Dell fell 83 cents to $24.38 on Friday. The shares have declined 9.6 percent this year.
``Our business is doing well. I don't see a huge change from what's been happening over the past few quarters,'' Dell said. ``We've been growing, we have record revenues, we've been profitable, and we're gaining market share, we're delivering great value to customers, so I don't have much to complain about.'' |
