To: Joseph Francis Torti who wrote (48125 ) 6/18/1998 4:02:00 PM From: jbn3 Respond to
Stock Buy-Back Dell's efficiencies also contributed to cash flows from operations totaling $1.6 billion. We used that cash, in part, to repurchase 69 million shares of Dell's common stock. By fiscal year-end, we had acquired 150 million shares since the company's stock-repurchase plan was begun in February 1996. In little more than a year following introduction of its PowerEdge line fo network servers, Dell became the third-largest vendor of network servers in the U.S. and fourth-largest in the world. In the first four months of the program, 6,000 employees--more than 30 percent of Shell's U.S. work force --purchased Dell Dimension desktop or Latitude notebook computers for home use. Sales growth for the company's notebook computers was three times the overall industry rate. Dell developed and last fall introduced a second line of notebook products: the award winning Inspiron brand, which is targeted to technology enthusiasts, complements the Latitude line, which is designed for corporate users.decreased as a percentage of net revenue from 12.3% to 11.4%, inspite of increasing the workforce by almost 50%.During fiscal 1998, the Company repurchased 69 million shares of its common stock for an aggregate cost of $1.0 billion. (That's about $14.35 per share, DELLfans) The company is currently authorized to repurchase up to 100 million additional shares of its common stock and anticipates that repurchases under this program will constitute a significant use of future cash resources. At February 1, 1998, the Company held equity instrument contracts that relate to the purchase of 50 million additional shares of its common stock for an average cost of $44 per share exercisable at various time in the first quarter of fiscal 1999 through the third quarter of fiscal 2000.
