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To: accountclosed who wrote (19959)	2/16/1999 9:29:00 PM
From: John Pitera	Respond to of 86076

Ask Michael Dell: comments on rev. Growth Tuesday February 16, 8:43 pm Eastern Time INTERVIEW-Dell sets sights lower on revenue growth By Eric Auchard NEW YORK, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp.(Nasdaq:DELL - news) expects to stay well ahead of its closest rivals in terms of revenue growth and market share gains, but the torrid pace the personal computer maker has maintained in the past is unlikely to return any time soon, its chairman said Tuesday. Michael Dell, the chairman, chief executive and founder of the world's leading direct supplier of PCs, said falling average selling prices for Dell computers and the failure to be more aggressive in passing along cost savings to customers had slowed the blistering pace of growth it maintained until recently. "Certainly that is true," Dell told Reuters in response to a question about whether the company's growth had slowed in terms of the past, when revenues consistently expanded at rates well above 50 percent year-to-year. In the Round Rock, Texas-based company's fiscal fourth quarter ended Jan. 29, revenues grew by 38 percent. Even so, he said Dell was likely to grow around three-and-a-half times the pace of the industry as a whole. "We have been very clear that we think our markets will continue to grow much faster than the industry," Dell said. His comments followed the release of the company's quarterly financial results. Profits for the fourth quarter ended in January matched Wall Street estimates, but revenue growth fell short of many analysts' expectations. Dell said the average selling prices of its computers declined to $2,350, down 1 percent from the third quarter ended Nov. 1 and 10 percent from the year ago quarter. The lower price declines of recent quarters suggest component pricing may have stabilized after sharp drops in recent years that have cut the average selling price for Dell's mix of servers, desktops and laptops from around $2,500. Looking ahead, the executive said price stability would depend on a mix of factors including the company's capacity to continue to increase the percentage of higher-margin products, such as servers, storage and workstations. During the fourth quarter, Dell said its enterprise business grew 80 percent year over year. The category includes Dell server PCs, data storage systems and workstations. Dell's notebooks computer revenues rose 49 percent year over year, while desktop revenues grew 31 percent. Total personal computer units grew 55 percent, he said, noting that such rates significantly outpaced those of its largest rivals, including Compaq, IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co. "We grew probably a couple times faster than the desktop market, probably three times faster than the notebook market and outgrew the server market by five to one," Dell said. Dell said analysts revenue estimates for the company looking ahead have taken account of the slower rate of growth as the company expands beyond the $18.2 billion it reported for the year ended in January of this year. In the current fiscal first quarter ending in April, Dell said results tended to grow in the mid-single digits, reflecting seasonal slowness in its consumer business after the strong holiday selling period. This is likely to be offset by the typical uptick in corporate and European region sales. He declined to comment on specific analyst expectations. biz.yahoo.com