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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack T. Pearson who wrote (20118)	3/6/1998 8:46:00 PM
From: Walter Brownlee	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Dell sure answered;;;;;; Friday March 6, 6:55 pm Eastern Time Dell says personal computer demand "firm" ROUND ROCK, Texas, March 6 (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp said on Friday it has been largely immune from a sales slowdown cited by its Texas-based rival Compaq Computer Corp (CPQ - news). Spokeswoman Michelle Moore told Reuters the company was experiencing normal seasonal fluctuations in sales, but that overall ''it's kind of business as usual.'' ''Our demand in major markets is firm and no different from normal seasonal patterns for us,'' she said. ''Their (Compaq's) announcement raised a specter in the marketplace that frankly we're not experiencing,'' Moore said after Compaq reported its first quarter earning results would be disappointing. ''We are neither feeling nor creating particularly unique price pressure at this point in time,'' Moore said.''We continue to price within our historical bands and we continue to price to our cost structure.'' ''Basically, we're feeling about as good about our model and our direct (sales) approach as we ever have ... we're not seeing anything unusual in our business trends right now,'' she added. Compaq said it would initiate price cuts to clear inventory, but Moore said that was unlikely to influence Dell's business plan. ''We don't tend to react to them anyway,'' she said. Moore said sales were "up sequentially for the quarter." Last month, Dell reported earnings of $0.81 a share in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1998, up from $0.50 a share for the same period a year ago. ''We also exited the quarter with very high end product line and very low inventory, which positions us well for some of the new product introductions and innovations coming from Intel a little later in the year,'' Moore said, referring to the world's largest computer chip maker Intel Corp (INTC - news). ''It's not atypical for companies (like Compaq) who sell through resellers to have larger channel inventories, and that can be a problem if demand moves to the high end,'' she said. More Quotes and News: Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ - news) Dell Computer Corp (Nasdaq:DELL - news) Intel Corp (Nasdaq:INTC - news)