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Sequential increases in demand and revenue from business customers highlighted Dell’s fiscal third-quarter 2010, reflecting the company’s strengthening enterprise-solutions capabilities, while overall operating expenses continued to decline as a result of strategic cost initiatives.

• Shipments were flat sequentially and down 5 percent from a year ago, though the Large Enterprise and Small and Medium Business segments had sequential improvements in shipments, revenue and operating income.
• Total revenue was $12.9 billion, a 1-percent sequential improvement and down 15 percent from a year ago. Q3 year-over-year comparisons across the business continued to improve from recent quarters.
• Gross margin was 17.3 percent of revenue including expenses of $102 million for organizational effectiveness (OE) actions and $27 million for amortization of intangibles. The combined cost of $129 million represented 1 percent of revenue.
• Earnings per share were 17 cents, including pre-tax expenses of $123 million (5 cents per share) for the OE actions and $40 million (1 cent per share) for amortization of intangibles.
• Cash flow from operations was again strong, totaling $801 million. Over the past four quarters, Dell has generated $3.4 billion of operating cash flow, up more than 40 percent from the previous four quarters.
• Operating Expenses were 12.8 percent of revenue, or $1.7 billion, 10 percent lower than last year’s third quarter.

Third Quarter Results:

(in millions)	FY'10	FY'09	Change
Revenue	$12,896	$15,162	(15%)
Operating Income	$577	$1,015	(43%)
Net Income	$337	$727	(54%)
EPS	$0.17	$0.37	(54%)

Strategic Progress:

• Dell completed the acquisition of Perot Systems in early November, giving the company an advantage in delivering expanded, practical solutions that meet real customer needs and help them reduce IT costs. Dell’s Q3 enhanced services revenue, not including results from Perot Systems, increased 2 percent sequentially. Integration of Perot Systems into the new Dell Services business is under way, with consolidated reporting to begin in the fourth quarter.
• Dell’s enterprise-systems business also grew sequentially, with server and storage revenue up a combined 5 percent and particular strength in year-over-year EqualLogic sales. Dell’s strategy to design and deliver practical, standards-based solutions for the data center and the cloud is resonating with customers looking to reduce complexity, improve efficiency and lower costs.
• Dell has reduced total operating expenses by $1.6 billion and made further progress against lowering its cost of goods sold since committing to a $4 billion in cost reductions by the end of FY2011 or sooner.
• Combined sales in China, India, Brazil and Russia were up 18 percent sequentially and 5 percent over last year. In China, Dell’s second-largest country in terms of revenue, sales increased 20 percent sequentially and 8 percent year-over-year.

Business Units:

• Large Enterprise revenue was $3.4 billion, up 4 percent from the second quarter, though down 23 percent from a year ago. Sequential shipments improved 1 percent. Operating income for the quarter was $174 million. Dell expanded networking partnerships with Brocade and Juniper, introduced new PowerEdge 11g servers further optimized for virtualization, and expanded the line of PowerVault storage systems in the quarter.
• Public revenue was $3.7 billion, down 3 percent sequentially and 7 percent from a year ago. Operating income was $352 million. Shipments were off 12 percent sequentially, following typical seasonality in the U.S. public sector after peak purchasing periods for education and state customers.
• Small and Medium Business revenue was $3 billion, up 5 percent sequentially and down 19 percent year over year. Shipments were up 9 percent sequentially and operating income was $282 million, 15 percent higher than in Q2 as a result of steadily improving demand in both the Americas and Asia-Pacific and better performance in EMEA during the second half of the period.
• Consumer revenue was $2.8 billion, essentially flat from the second quarter and down 10 percent from a year ago. Shipments increased by 4 percent sequentially and 17 percent over last year. Dell’s Consumer business generated quarterly operating income of $10 million, and its year-to-date operating income exceeds 1 percent of revenue, consistent with expectations.

Quotes:
Michael Dell, chairman of the board and chief executive officer: “We are seeing improvement in overall underlying IT demand that is continuing into the fourth quarter. The same is true with momentum in Dell’s business, specifically in our Large Enterprise and SMB segments. The launch of Windows 7 is being very well received by SMBs and consumers, and we’ll see the benefits of that more fully in our fiscal Q4.”

Brian Gladden, chief financial officer: “Consistently generating strong cash from operations allows us to expand our own capabilities and acquire new ones. Those investments will mostly be in higher-margin enterprise solutions, like our purchase of Perot Systems. Adding Perot best positions us to provide streamlined solutions that help customers get the most from their IT budgets.”

Company Outlook:

• For the fourth quarter, Dell expects seasonal demand improvement in its Consumer business, while demand in Public is typically lower during the quarter. The company expects fourth quarter revenue to improve over the third quarter.
• The company is seeing improvement in underlying sequential trends in several areas, including a significant portion of its commercial business. Recent technology introductions, indications of improving economic activity and the prospect of a lift in associated IT spending position the company well, particularly as commercial customers upgrade their technology beginning in 2010.

About Dell
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) helps customers succeed by understanding their issues and needs and delivering innovative, high-value IT solutions. For more information, visit www.dell.com. To hear a replay of the third-quarter analyst call with Michael Dell, chairman and CEO, and Brian Gladden, CFO, go to www.dell.com/investors. To communicate directly with Dell, go to www.dell.com/dellshares.

Special Note:
Statements in this press release that relate to future results and events (including statements about our future financial and operating performance and anticipated customer demand) are forward-looking statements based on Dell's current expectations. Actual results and events in future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements because of a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including: weakening global economic conditions and instability in financial markets; our ability to reestablish a cost advantage over our competitors; our ability to generate substantial non-U.S. net revenue; our ability to accurately predict product, customer and geographic sales mix and seasonal sales trends; information technology and manufacturing infrastructure failures and breaches in data security; our ability to effectively manage periodic product transitions; disruptions in component or product availability; our reliance on vendors for quality product components, including reliance on several single-source or limited-source suppliers; our ability to access the capital markets; risks relating to our internal controls; potential unfavorable outcomes of tax matters and legal proceedings, including the continuing SEC investigation into certain accounting and financial reporting matters; our acquisition of other companies; our ability to properly manage the distribution of our products and services; the success of our cost-cutting measures; effective hedging of our exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates; counterparty default risks; obtaining licenses to intellectual property developed by others on commercially reasonable and competitive terms; our ability to attract, retain and motivate key personnel; loss of government contracts; expiration of tax holidays or favorable tax rate structures; changing environmental laws; and the effect of armed hostilities, terrorism, natural disasters and public health issues. For a discussion of those and other factors affecting our business and prospects, see Dell’s periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements.

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