Dell profit and stock drop on weak Q3 report

Dell Inc. didn't join them Thursday.

The company reported a 54 percent drop in net income and a 15 percent decline in revenue in its latest quarter, both steeper than analysts had forecast.

Dell's shares fell almost 6 percent in extended trading.

The numbers show that Dell isn't fully benefiting from the industry's fledgling recovery, even though the company is seeing improvement in some areas.

“We are already seeing more client activity in the last 30 to 60 days than we have in a long time,” Michael Dell, the company's CEO, said on a conference call with analysts. Dell has been hurt more than its peers because of tightened spending by corporations and large government agencies, which make up 80 percent of Dell's revenue.

Meanwhile, rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and Acer Inc. have boosted their market share by exploiting their bigger presence in retail stores. That has been a big weapon because consumer interest in little laptops called “netbooks” has helped the PC industry start to pull out of its worst slump in years.

In the last quarter, Acer replaced Dell as the world's No. 2 personal computer maker. Dell has said it is willing to lose some market share rather than lower prices too much. That is a key part of Dell's strategy to improve profitability — an effort that has included a huge restructuring.

Dell's work force was trimmed by 9,300 last year to 78,900 at the end of January, the last time the company gave employment figures. It also has changed the way it makes and sells computers, leaning more on contract manufacturers and retailers instead of doing everything in-house.

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