Dell complaints

[Licky_201]

"Throw This Stock Away

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz
July 1, 2009 | Comments (1)

I'm not much of a morale massager. If egos need to be stroked, they should probably steer clear of this weekly column, where I bash a single stock to bits.

I'm aiming at a company that used to be great. It was so admired a decade ago that companies in non-competing fields would send their finest on recon tours of the company's operations, just to see what made it tick. Times change.

Don't worry. I'm not some mean-spirited meanie. I wouldn't dream of slamming a stock unless I had three suitable replacements to offer you. And I offer a fair trade, I think. Who gets tossed out this week? Come on down, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL).

Dude, you're vetting a Dell
I don't like picking on companies when they're down, but Dell certainly qualifies. Despite the past few months of rallying markets, shares of Dell still fetch just a little more than half of the company's 52-week highs.

It's easy to see why Mr. Market isn't fond of Dell. Revenue and earnings fell last year, and analysts see even sharper declines this fiscal year. One can argue that most IT-based tech stocks are in a similar funk, but that doesn't excuse Dell for its sloppy performance lately.

Where are the catalysts? This isn't necessarily a rhetorical question. There was a time when I felt though the arrival of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows 7 would trigger a new upgrade cycle for personal computers, but that's unlikely at this point.

Microsoft is allowing computer users to preorder Windows 7 Home Premium over the next few days for $49, less than half of its eventual retail price, and it's selling briskly. In other words, a growing number of frustrated Vista users -- and those rocking it old-school with XP -- aren't going to bother upgrade to a new PC to get their hands on the new operating system.

Sure enough, despite the Windows 7 buzz, marketing research firm Gartner still predicts a 6% dip in PC shipments this year. Dell's slice of the diminishing pie is also likely to shrink, since it lacks the upmarket proprietary appeal of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and isn't as prominent in the entry-level netbook market as are Asian specialists such as Acer and ASUS.

Another flawed catalyst is the long-rumored Dell smartphone. Dell has a history of fumbling away opportunities in non-PC areas such as portable media players and HDTVs. A telco hat on Dell's head might well look more like a dunce cap. Does Dell stand a chance in a country with tens of millions of BlackBerry and iPhone owners tethered to two-year contracts? Does it really want to fight for scraps of what's left of the market of late adopters who can actually afford the steep monthly smartphone contracts? Whether Dell enters this organically, or whether it tries to make up for lost time by snapping up Palm (Nasdaq: PALM), what's the point?

Sorry, Dell. The catalysts just aren't there."

[rustyboots]

What happened here??? The Fool use to stand by Dell as if it was part of the Second Coming. When we knew Dell was falling and falling fast and hard, the Fool still said Buy and Hold. Guess he didn't get his free Dell desktop with all the trimmings. These guys should have seen this coming 5-7 years ago and wrote about it then. Everything said in this article was true then, but they couldn't or wouldnt say it. I guess they are off the Dell Christmas list and can now speak the truth.
SPEAK THE TRUTH AND IT SHALL SET YOU FREE (along with the others who lost money in the past 5 years!!)
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rustyboots (i use to slave at dell)

[Apathy]

I guess DHell's "financial incentive check" to the Fool bounced and the Fool's loyalty nose-dived soon after. Either way the Fool finally saw the light and got the story straight.
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Q: How do you know Dell Management is lying to you?

A: Until proven otherwise, Assume EVERYTHING coming from Dell Management is a lie.