Hi Keith - Do you recall what the market cap comparison was? I have a feeling that ASND never got close to CSCO, while Dell is getting 'real' close to CPQ. (Which in a rational market would indicate to me that we are overdue for a run, maybe when more is heard from EP concerning merger plans). Seems we are not even chugging along, but going 'backward'! With all the talk about options manipulation keeping CPQ's price down, I wonder why those same manipulators are having less 'success' in keeping Dell's price stable for expiration <gggg>. By the way, thought I'd include an article in today's News.Com about Dell's goal to pass CPQ by 2000, and do it in Europe via the internet. I have checked out CPQ's site several times, because of the channel they only offer a couple of models for sale via the net, 3 desktop models as I recall, and one or two laptops...
Dell sees Web sales,
Europe as key
By Reuters
Special to CNET NEWS.COM
February 19, 1998, 2:05 p.m. PT
PARIS--Online sales and more growth in the
European market are key parts of Dell Computer's
(DELL) strategy for becoming the No. 1 PC
vendor in 2000.
Dell expects to make 50 percent of its sales via its
Internet site within three years, according to Jan
Gesmar-Larsen, president of the company's
Europe, Middle East, and Africa division, and is
counting on increased sales outside the United
States, particularly in Europe.
Online sales will help Dell leapfrog current leader
Compaq Computer, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM,
Gesmar-Larsen said. The strategy is not a new one
for the Round Rock, Texas, manufacturer, as
executives including CEO Michael Dell have
frequently touted sales gains via e-commerce.
On the other hand, sales in Europe will rise in the
current fiscal year by at least the 47 percent gain
recorded for the previous fiscal year to February
1998, Gesmar-Larsen noted. "The European
market is expected to rise by between 10 and 15
percent. If you add to that our new activities, we
should have at least the same rise as last year," he
noted.
In Europe, Dell was No. 5 in number of units sold
and No. 4 dollar terms in the most recent quarter.
Dell had $2.96 billion in European sales in the year
to February, out of total worldwide sales of $12.33
billion.
Dell expects "triple digit" sales growth in Spain in
calendar 1998 and is beefing up its Italian presence
by launching a subsidiary there in the next few
weeks. "We have an internal objective to increase
the share in earnings of business outside the U.S.,
and I am surely doing all I can to make sure that
Europe will play a more dominant role," he said.
"We expect significant growth in all the countries
but we want to make sure that Europe plays it fair
share of worldwide growth, which means that I
have to grow faster than worldwide," he said.
While the top five computer makers currently made
up 30 percent of world sales, the top three will
represent 50 percent in the year 2000, according to
the Dell executive. Some smaller regional
producers such as Tulip Computers of the
Netherlands or Italy's Olivetti could disappear.
"You would either have to be much bigger if you
are very small and if you are mid-sized you have to
decide to either scale up or scale down,"
Gesmar-Larsen said. "I personally believe that the
companies that will be successful are those that
play on open standards and that have their whole
manufacturing, logistics, and inventories on a
world-class level," he added.
Compared to Compaq, Dell's big advantage is that
it only has its direct-sales activity and does not deal
with distribution networks and resellers, which
generates stocks of computers that are
technologically old, he asserted.
Asked about recent moves by Compaq and Apple,
a company at which he worked for five years, to
sell via the Internet, Gesmar-Larsen said Internet
selling was more than having a site on the Web. "It
will not work unless you have a manufacturing
service that can 'build to order.' And if you have
that, customers do not want to pay the markup for
resellers and distributors. So, when are these
companies going to tell their resellers that they do
not need them any longer?"
To service the European market, Dell maintains
two manufacturing sites in Ireland, where it recently
announced it will double its capacity and hire an
additional 3,000 people over the next three to five
years.
On other fronts, Dell wants to extend its range of
Windows NT servers in order to be more visible in
corporate offices as well as to attract more
consumer buyers. It aims to do this partly by
leveraging its relationship with big corporate clients:
Dell is offering special pages on corporate Intranets
through which company employees can order
computers, sometimes with financial assistance
from the customer's company. Dell's Premier Page
program is available to 250 European corporate
customers.
John |
