Eager anticipation
Dell's Q2 profits bore a close resemblance to those of its close rival Acer yesterday, with a year-on-year fall of 23 percent. However, with revenue also falling by 22 percent, it doesn't look like Dell has taken the margin hit that Acer has over the recession.
Another difference is that Dell's figures seem to have exceeded analyst expectations. The New York Times reports that Dell accidentally released the figures a few minutes before US stock markets closed, resulting in a share price jump of 6.71 percent by close of trading and an additional three percent after hours.
Another reason for the share jump could be relatively bullish sentiment coming out of the world's second biggest PC maker. "We have been reducing complexity in our organization and significantly lowering operating costs, in anticipation of improvement in the global economy and IT spending," said the eponymous Michael.
"If current demand trends continue, we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half. We are expanding our capabilities in enterprise technology and services and investing in our core business to distinguish Dell both with customers and in operating performance."
Dell gets a lot of its revenue from businesses, and has been suffering as they extend the IT refresh cycle during the recession. In its outlook, Dell predicted that commercial accounts are more likely to refresh their IT equipment in 2010, with US companies leading the way.
