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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: rudedog who wrote (136944)	7/17/1999 9:23:00 PM
From: jim kelley	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176388

Dog, I listened to the presentation and I did not discern the negative elements that you are propounding. DELL's momentum is about the same as it was last year. Using a physics analogy where mass is replaced by revenue and velocity is replaced by rate of growth. So this company is not slowing down in that sense. Further, the management is not focused on the past as you have stated. They clearly pointed out the main directions that the company is taking for the future. They cited 4 focii of growth: 1) Enterprise 2) services 3) Global expansion 4) Consumer PC's. They have stated that each of the areas represented the potential for 10B in incremental revenue. They intend to grow these businesses organically and not buy growth through the purchase of diseased companies as CPQ has done. To date, MD has not been found lying to the DELL shareholders. I personally do not think he is now either lying or exagerating the the potential prospects for the company. In fact, DELL is one of the few companies I have seen own up to its mistakes in the recent past. They acknowledged that they should have lowered their prices more quickly last fall. Yes there was optimism for sharegains from CPQ and other indirect players in the PC market. But that optimism appears well founded because of DELL ability to execute its unique business model. DELL can be forgiven his enthusiasm and sense of triumph over the imploision of CPQ and some of the other PC companies in the heat of battle as long as DELL management stays focused on its goals and does not get distracted by its own rhetoric. CPQ was notorious for lying to its shareholders and cutting sweetheart deals for the inner circle. Let us hope that DELL keeps faith with his shareholders and does not resort to such tactics. In the meantime it should be remembered that the summer season is seasonly slow and Europe is weak this quarter although Asia is getting back to normal. So expectations should be reasonable this quarter. Share gains from the corporate business that DELL is taking from CPQ should materialize in the 3rd and 4th quarter. :)

To: rudedog who wrote (136944)	7/17/1999 9:57:00 PM
From: Meathead	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 176388

Rude, I find it amazing how many are now focused on management of perceptions and personalities rather than management of the business. I'm somewhat surprised that now you seem to be somewhat concerned with this as well. I've watched MD and gang hold these dog and pony shows for years. These guys have never been very exciting or articulate.... the stock has been exciting but the mgmt team has at times, come off like uninformed geeks. I haven't seen anything in MD's verbiage or delivery that suggests he's any different today than 5 years ago. No one, and I mean no one complained last year when MD dodged questions on CNBC after fantastic Q2 earnings. When asked certain questions, MD retreated to the 'were growing at a multiple of the industry' comeback. In fact, one time, I believe Mark Haines actually asked MD to stop making the interview sound like a Dell commercial. No one seemed too concerned last year when MD testified on MSFT's behalf and did a big bellyflop when cornered on Dell's willingness to bundle Netscape on it's machines. What has changed is the "perception" of the shareholders following the company... many of them new shareholders who got on for the ride, are now in a hole, and don't understand much about the business or model to begin with. This new "perception" is also a byproduct of the stock price retreating. When the stock was advancing, MD's posture was one of confidence, now that it has gone down, it's one of disconnected cockyness. This "perception" will change again when Dell delivers financial results consistent with management's guideance. Personally, I thought most of the questions from the audience were down right embarrasingly ignorant... (except for jbn3 and a couple others <gg>). There aren't a whole lot of comebacks for "gee, your computers seem to crashing at this one school so try to make better quality machines for schools... ok?".... OKIDOKI! We'll get right on that! We'll staff an organization internally to make sure only the "good" computers go the the educational segment... yeah whatever. Next moronic question please. Rude, I respect your opinion as you are one of the few who actually worked for many years in this industry, so you understand the challenges. As you know, real strategic plans in the technology industry are difficult to encapsulate into simple to understand sound bytes. This is what happens in politics... 'Were going to lower taxes!' But how? Who cares! He gets my vote. 2 years later he's an idiot politician whom everyone would like to run out of office cause public services are being cut due to lack of funding. Win the public opinion contest on a bogus platform and loose the race. I expected the shareholders meeting to offer no new earth shattering news, and it didn't. Dell has communicated all the latest and greatest through a barrage of media leading up to the meeting. Dell's plans and vision are fairly well documented in print for anyone that's willing to invest the time. I believe the ability to consistently grow revenue and profits going forward undoubtedly overshadows any shortcomings in winning popularity contests. What really blows my mind however is the large number of investors who are disappointed that Dell will be aggressively going for share in the few boring businesses that generate ~ 1 Trillion in revenue yet all but ignoring acquisitions of business who compete in the more galmourous headline generating businesses of < 20 Billion. When they told me Americans didn't possess the ability to do basic math, I didn't believe them.... now I do. MEATHEAD