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All the entries posted on February 28, 2008.
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Home > Plugged In > Archives > 2008 > February > 28
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Dell profit, revenue miss Wall Street expectations
Dell Inc. reported lower-expected revenue growth in the fourth quarter, and its profit dropped 6 percent from the same period last year as the company continued its restructuring and closed two recent acquisitions.
Dell’s revenue was $16 billion in the quarter, up 10 percent from last year. It reported net income of $679 million, or 31 cents a share, down from $726 million, or 32 cents a share last year.
Excluding several one-time charges and gains, Dell’s earnings would have been 34 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call expected an average of 36 cents a share on revenue of $16.2 billion.
Dell also said it has laid off 3,200 employees worldwide over the last eight months, part of an ongoing plan to reduce its global workforce by 10 percent. The company did not say whether it planned to reach the 10-percent target, and a spokesman declined to say how many of the layoffs have occurred in Central Texas.
Dell employed 88,200 people as of Feb. 1, when its fiscal year ended. That was down about 800 jobs from the same time last year. Although Dell has cut jobs, it also has added some workers through buying other companies.
The company generated $1.2 billion in cash from operations in the fourth quarter, but its total cash and short-term investments dropped to $9.5 billion from $14.5 billion at the end of the third quarter. Dell said it used about $4 billion of its cash balance to buy back stock during the quarter.
For the full fiscal year, Dell reported revenue of $61.1 billion, up 6 percent from the year before. Profit was $2.9 billion, or $1.32 per share, up 14 percent from $2.6 billion, or $1.14, the prior year.
Google’s Going Healthy
At a medical industry conference in Orlando, Google Inc. is providing new details today about its plans to let consumers store and access their medical records online and share them with other medical providers when they move or change doctors.
Google Health is designed to let users get their X-rays or medical reports through a secure Web site. They can check what medicines they’ve taken — and how much they paid for them — easily search for information on diseases or other health problems and send their records to new health care providers with a click of the mouse.
The Internet giant plans to work with a wide variety of health industry companies, from local hospitals and research centers to retailers and pharmacies like Wal-Mart and and Long’s Drugs.
Google officials say the new Google Health site will be safe and secure and that their personal information won’t be shared. And if a user has concerns about the privacy of their records, Google points out, they can always just go online and delete them.
Try doing that with the records at your doctor’s office.
Congress looks at subsidized mobile-phone deals
Congressman Ed Markey, the Democratic chairman of the committee that deals with the Internet and telecommunications, has the right idea.
He’s floating a bill that would require wireless carriers to offer an option to customers to buy an unsubsidized handset without a service contract, CNET says.
The proposal also would make carriers disclose more detailed information about their coverage area and simpler explanations of their rate plans.
Good luck, Ed. I’m pulling for you.
If he’s successful, the company that stands to lose the most is AT&T. It requires a 2-year service agreement with the purchase of a new Apple iPhone. Some say the subsidy on the price of the phone is $400.
That might be worth it for some people. But I’ll bet there are others who hate signing a service agreement. I think it’s time to dump them. The consumer loses out because it delays competition until the contract runs out. These carriers are established now. They don’t need these locked-in deals anymore.