Dell Warns PC Market Hasn't Yet Hit Bottom

Dell Warns PC Market Hasn't Yet Hit Bottom
Dell warned the painful slump in demand for its personal computers has yet to reach a bottom, as the PC maker posted a 63% drop in quarterly profit amid a 23% drop in revenue. The results mark the 3rd consecutive quarter of shrinking sales & profit at the company, whose turnaround efforts and new products have been unable to arrest its slide. The Round Rock, TX company said iresults were driven by weak business spending during the 3 months ended May 1. It's profit was also dragged down by restructuring charges. Brian Gladden, CFO, said it has yet to see "a bottom" to the prolonged slump in tech spending. "Demand is still not improving," he said. Dell's results, along with weak results from rival Hewlett-Packard last week, snuffed recent hopes tech spending might be picking up. Execs at tech giants Cisco Systems & Intel recently said spending on tech seemed to be leveling off. But that optimism hasn't extended to the PC market, that still accounts for about half of Dell's revenue. Dell reported a 20% decline in laptop revenue & a 34% drop in desktop PCs for the quarter. The div. that sells to large companies posted a 31% revenue slide. Falloff reflects "very bad demand" among large corporate customers that make up a sizeable chunk of Dell's business, said Jayson Noland, analyst at R.W. Baird. Dell's been tried to become less reliant on corporate customers since early 2007, when founder Michael Dell returned as CEO. He