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

To: stockman_scott who wrote (124227)	5/12/1999 9:57:00 PM
From: Gabriel008	Respond to of 176387

Scott, here's an interview with Paul Bell. If you pay particular attention to paragraph 5 you'll see that DELL will, at the least, meet expectations. And, those expectations range from 15 to 17 cents this quarter. INTERVIEW-Europe home PC push to spur Dell growth Reuters, Wednesday, May 12, 1999 at 14:09 By Neal Boudette LANGEN, Germany, May 12 (Reuters) - Dell Computer Corp (NASDAQ:DELL) said on Wednesday it expects a new push toward home and small business buyers in Europe to help boost both profit and sales this year. After concentrating primarily on large corporations in Europe, direct marketer Dell has set up special teams to target consumers in Germany, France and Britain, the three largest markets in a region ripe for a boom in home Internet use. Dell, which has already rolled out a similar effort in the United States, expects the plan to pump up its weak market share among European home buyers and to contribute to the bottom line. "This is one of many factors that is going to continue to drive our growth," Paul Bell, vice president for Dell's home and small business group, told Reuters in an interview. "When we met with the analysts recently, we told them their projections were in line, and some of them are pretty aggressive," Bell said. The European consumer effort, he said, "is one of the things that makes this believable." Dell, an investor favourite that regularly posted growth of over 50 percent in the last few years, disappointed when sales gains eased to 38 percent in the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999, which ended January 29. Results for the first quarter of fiscal 2000 will be released on May 18. On the strength of corporate sales, Dell captured 9.3 percent of the European market in the first three months of the 1999, according to London research group Context. But it is almost non-existent in the home and small business market. Worldwide, home and small business buyers make up half of the PC market, but only 30 percent of Dell's global sales. "This is one of the great growth opportunities for us," Bell said at Dell's German headquarters just south of Frankfurt. In Germany, Mathias Schaedel joined Dell from rival Compaq Computer Corp (NYSE:CPQ) in February to spearhead a consumer team of more than 100 people -- about a quarter of Dell's entire German workforce. Similar teams are already in place in Britain and France, Bell said. In the past Chief Executive Michael Dell shunned the home market because consumer-market pricing and the high cost of supporting novice users left margins razor-thin. But selling to consumers, who pay right away, has certain financial advantages over corporate sales, Bell said. "They use credit cards, so your receivables are basically nil. The return on invested capital is extremely high." The consumer drive in Europe is targeting second-time or experienced PC buyers, who make up an increasing portion of the market as German, French and British homes get on the Internet. "We think Germany is ready for us now," Bell said. In the fourth quarter of fiscal 1999, Dell reported net profit rose 49 percent to $425 million on group sales of $5.2 billion. European revenue was up 40 percent in the period. In New York, Dell shares opened at 42-3/4, up one eighth. frankfurt.newsroom@reuters.com)) Copyright 1999, Reuters News Service