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To: StockDung who wrote (18152)	8/17/2006 5:55:00 PM
From: scion	Respond to of 19428

Dell's Reports 51% Drop in Profit And Says SEC Is Probing Accounting A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP August 17, 2006 5:37 p.m. online.wsj.com Dell Inc.'s profit dropped 51%, hurt by deep discounting and lackluster demand for personal computers. The company also said the SEC is investigating its revenue recognition practices. The No. 1 personal computer maker posted net income of $502 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with $1.02 billion, or 41 cents a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue rose 5% to $14.09 billion from $13.43 billion in the year earlier period. Dell blamed its profit problems on aggressive price cutting and a slower market. "While we are disappointed with the results for the quarter, we are taking the necessary actions to correct missteps and improve our results for the long term," said Kevin Rollins, Dell chief executive officer, in a press release. Results were about in line with the company's lowered forecast; Dell reduced its second-quarter outlook in July, putting earnings per share at 21 to 23 cents, with revenue at $14 billion. Dell also disclosed an informal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission dating back to August 2005. The company said it is cooperating with the probe and does not believe the issues will have a material impact on its reported financial results. The company said, however, its audit committee has begun an independent investigation after "recently discovered information that raises potential issues relating to certain periods prior to fiscal 2006." In a conference call, executives downplayed the significance of the SEC investigation, saying nothing illegal has been alleged. Chief Financial Officer Jim Schneider said Dell received a letter from the SEC in August 2005 and has been answering "mainly general questions on some practices" since then. The letter was "one of hundreds I think that they send out each year," Mr. Rollins said. The executives said they opted to make the inquiry public now - instead of a year ago - because Dell has decided internally to delve deeper into some issues that the company discovered in the course of responding to the SEC's questions. "This [SEC inquiry] has gone on for about a year without anything really being alleged," Mr. Schneider added. Separately, Dell said Thursday it would expand its partnership with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and begin selling desktop computers running AMD chips. The first AMD powered desktops will be available next month, Dell said. The announcement confirmed speculation AMD would begin supplying chips for more of Dell's product line after Dell last spring broke from its longtime policy of using only Intel Corp. chips. Former Wall Street darling Dell has come under pressure as recent growth in the PC market comes mostly from the consumer segment, which is a smaller part of Dell's business. Meanwhile, investors' favor seems to have shifted toward archrival Hewlett-Packard Co., which Wednesday posted3 a surge in profit and raised its outlook for the current quarter and fiscal year. Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, was hit with another stumbling block earlier this week when it announced plans to recall4 more than four million notebook-computer batteries due to fire hazards -- the largest computer-related recall in history. Dell released its report after U.S. markets closed. In late trading, the company's shares fell 90 cents, or 4%, to $21.90. Dell closed at $22.80, up seven cents, at 4 p.m. on the Nasdaq Stock Market. -- Bob Sechler and Don Clark contributed to this article Write to the Online Journal's editors at newseditors@wsj.com7 URL for this article: online.wsj.com

To: StockDung who wrote (18152)	8/18/2006 10:22:40 AM
From: scion	Respond to of 19428

Comverse Cancels Trio's Job Pacts And Revokes Their Stock Options By MARK MAREMONT and JAMES BANDLER August 18, 2006; Page A2 online.wsj.com Comverse Technology Inc., acting in the wake of criminal charges leveled last week against its former three top officers related to options backdating, said it canceled the trio's employment agreements and revoked their stock options. Former Comverse Chief Executive Kobi Alexander held more than $49 million in exercisable options as of Jan. 31, 2005, according to the company's most recently filed proxy statement. He has since exercised less than 10% of the options he then held, according to a database operated by Thomson Financial. Mr. Alexander, former chief financial officer David Kreinberg, and former senior general counsel William Sorin, were charged last week in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., with conspiracy related to a decade-long scheme to manipulate stock-options grants at Comverse, a New York telecommunications firm Mr. Alexander failed to appear in court, and is considered a fugitive by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A dual American and Israeli citizen, he wired $57 million from the U.S. to Israel in late July. The FBI said last week it had notified Interpol, the international police organization, that it was seeking to arrest Mr. Alexander. The three men resigned from Comverse in May, but at the time continued to have consulting agreements with the company under which they weren't permitted to exercise any options. Mr. Alexander's employment agreement entitled him to severance of more than $4 million, plus three times his annual salary and bonus if he was fired without "cause," according to the 2005 Comverse proxy. The company said yesterday that it would make no severance payments to any of the three ex-officers. Robert Morvillo, one of Mr. Alexander's New York lawyers, said he hasn't spoken to his client in several weeks and doesn't know whether the former CEO would want his lawyers to fight for his assets. "I assume he understood he was imperiling some of the assets that were in the U.S. by failing to submit to the jurisdiction of the courts," Mr. Morvillo said. "It is only an assumption because I haven't had an opportunity to talk to him about it." According to the FBI, Mr. Alexander from 1991 to 2003 made $138 million in profits from exercising Comverse options. The government contends many of the options granted by Comverse were improperly backdated to confer extra profit on Mr. Alexander and others. James Brochin, an attorney for Mr. Sorin, declined to comment. An attorney for Mr. Kreinberg couldn't be reached. Write to Mark Maremont at mark.maremont@wsj.com5 and James Bandler at james.bandler@wsj.com6 URL for this article: online.wsj.com

To: StockDung who wrote (18152)	8/18/2006 10:28:12 AM
From: scion	Respond to of 19428

Microsoft Boosts Buyback Plan A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP August 18, 2006 9:50 a.m. online.wsj.com Microsoft Corp. said Friday it increased its ongoing share buyback plan by about $16.2 billion, boosting its total repurchase authorization to $36.2 billion through June 30, 2011. The company originally announced share buyback plans when it posted fiscal fourth-quarter results July 20. At the time, the Redmond, Wash., software giant said the stock-buyback program would include a $20 billion tender offer for shares to be completed Aug. 17, and authorization for as much as $20 billion in additional buybacks through 2011. Microsoft said Friday that preliminary results of a tender offer, conducted as a Dutch auction that closed Thursday, indicate it will repurchase about 155 million of its common shares at $24.75 each, for a total cost of about $3.8 billion. That was at the high end of the expected range. These shares represent approximately 1.5% of the shares outstanding. Shares of Microsoft gained 31, or 1.3%, $25.01 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market Friday. Write to the Online Journal's editors at newseditors@wsj.com