Dell ready to outpace the industry

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 23 Oct 2008 at 09:05

Dell says it expects to grow faster than the industry this year, though it admits it has no idea in which direction the global PC market will head.

"For the first nine months of this year, according to IDC, Dell grew a few points faster than the overall industry for our unit growth. We expect for the full year, Dell will grow faster than the industry," said Michael Dell, announcing the completion of its planned job cuts.

The company has cut 8,900 jobs, and invested in infrastructure and acquisitions as it seeks to take on the softening market. Dell says the free cash will be used to make acquisitions

Despite his bullish prediction, Dell admitted that slow demand had spread from the US to Europe and Asia, and had not rebounded as expected after the summer lull. In August, it posted a steep drop in second-quarter profit, saying that companies were becoming more conservative in spending.

"Honestly, how things will turn out next year is hard to say," said Alex Yung, Dell China vice president, at the same event.

"We don't know what kind of policy the Chinese government will come up with. If it continues to encourage domestic consumption, we wouldn't be too worried," he said.

"And also if the Chinese banks are not pulled too far (into global financial turmoil), we wouldn't be too worried."