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

To: kemble s. matter who wrote (155918)	4/5/2000 12:34:00 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176388

Hi Kemble! More on the analyst meeting! :)Leigh biz.yahoo.com Tuesday April 4, 7:12 pm Eastern Time Dell seen redoubling push into business back-office By Nicole Volpe NEW YORK, April 4 (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news) is set to unveil new products and services on Wednesday, seeking to position itself in front of the fast-growing market for computers used for business operations on the Internet. Wall Street analysts said they expected Dell to focus on so-called ``back office' technology, such as computers that manage networks and data storage, which handle much of the tasks and business made possible by the Internet. The Round Rock, Texas-based company is seeking to cherry-pick the fastest-growing pieces of the business computing market, where sales grow at 50 percent or better, as Dell seeks to recapture the historic growth rates that have generated so much enthusiasm for the stock. Earlier this year, Dell warned investors to expect growth rates in the low 30 percent range for the foreseeable future as the company seeks to recapture its stride in higher growth areas. ``The enterprise market is increasingly the focus of their energy as opposed to the desktop,' said ING Barings analyst Robert Cihra. ``It's a faster growing part of the market.' Dell said the new products would target Internet service providers, companies that provide software over the Web, and dot-coms. ``The focus will be on Dell's strategic plans to try to leverage the Internet in order to grow its business,' said Chase Hambrecht & Quist analyst Walter Winnitzski. ``The question is how Dell will take its efficient model and rapid inventory turns and take it to another level to create a moving target for its competitors.' Specifically, Dell was expected to unveil a line of server appliances, which are less expensive, lighter servers tailored to limited tasks such as storage or e-mail systems management, analysts said. The appliance server market is expected to grow into a $11.5 billion market in 2004, compared to a $740 million market in 1999, according to International Data Corp. forecasts. Analysts also expected Dell to reveal a plan for providing a host of products to be used by businesses throughout their networks as they build online operations. ``We expect Dell management to articulate its plan for capturing Internet driven growth by offering end-to-end infrastructure extending from servers and storage products to PCs and iAppliances (computer devices used for specific Web uses),' Bear Stearns analyst Andrew Neff wrote in a note to clients. Dell declined to comment beyond a news advisory saying that: ``Executives will outline the company's major Internet-infrastructure strategy, and announce related new products, services, partnerships and investments...to harness the power of the Internet.' Dell, which currently has about a 9 percent share of the market for entry-level servers based on chips from Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - news), was also expected to outline its strategies for pushing further into the market for more expensive servers that handle heavier business functions. Last October, Dell completed its acquisition of ConvergeNet Technologies Inc., a provider of storage management software, making it a new contender in the storage hardware market currently dominated by EMC Corp.(NYSE:EMC - news) ``An appliance model for storage would apply well to Dell's pack it up, ship it out kind of business,' said J.P. Morgan analyst Daniel Kunstler. ``It could be an excellent business for Dell, but storage is not easy stuff.' Analysts said Dell was poised to capture a share of the fast-growing storage area networks (SANs), a new class of specialized storage equipment that store and recover data such as e-mail and corporate data at higher speeds than possible on traditional data storage systems. SANs are estimated to grow 50 percent a year for the next three to five years, or about four times faster than the overall storage market, CS First Boston analyst Michael Kwatinetz said. ``Maybe EMC wins all that business, but cost is a big factor and it offers an opportunity for all the players,' Kwatinetz said. ``Dell and Compaq are well positioned for that market.'