Dell CEO Tells All

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Posted by timothy on Sunday July 18, 2004 @05:12PM from the formerly-of-black-flag dept.

zapatero writes "The San Francisco Chronicle has an enjoyable read with new Dell CEO Kevin Rollins. He has quite a critique of the HP acquisition of Compaq: 'They had a great, profitable printer business before. They still have a great, profitable printer business. ... Their profits are 70 to 80 percent from the printer business. So that's the area where the profit pool still lives. It's where it lived before. It's where it still is now. So I just ask, what's changed?'"

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I've seen it first hand. by Mr.+Vandemar · 2004-07-18 17:24 · Score: 5, Informative

I live near a large HP facility (Boise, Idaho) and I've seen first hand the changes at HP. Brilliant engineers are being fired, and what used to be an emphasis on innovation and creativity has been replaced by a lust for short term profit to please the investors. I used to think HP was the most admirable company in tech, and maybe it was, but now... What goes around comes around though, I'm not expecting HP to succeed in the long run.

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Re:HP's benefit ... by Draknor · 2004-07-18 17:35 · Score: 5, Informative

For the ignorant (like myself):

SS7 - Signalling System #7 is a set of protocols defined by ITU-T, specifically in the Q.7* set of documents, used to set up telephone calls. (from Wikipedia).

Himalay / NonStop - The NonStop servers, which sell for an average of more than $1 million a piece, are highly valued for their ability to handle thousands of simultaneous transactions and their capability to continue operating even if hit with multiple hardware failures. The robust computing systems are particularly favored by financial institutions and are used to run 15 of the world's largest stock exchanges as well as automated teller machine networks for some of the nation's largest banks. (from PCMag, 2002)

Parent is a very informative post - I didn't know about this other side of HP/Compaq!
Re:HP's benefit ... by ZenJabba1 · 2004-07-18 17:36 · Score: 5, Informative

As a "Regional Systems Support Engineer for Asia Pacific" some of the things we used to do for our customers were totally amazing in this day and age.

One thing that I remember doing for one my customers is shipping a part on a hired helecopter because it was the fastest way to get me the part and the customer was on a "DEC Protect/Recover All" contract, which mean NOTHING was too much trouble.

Those were the days.

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Re:Hear hear by Doc+Ruby · 2004-07-18 17:57 · Score: 5, Informative
The investigative body of Congress, the (nonpartisan) General Accounting Office, released a report in February 2004 that revealed shockingly low corporate tax contributions. You can also have an analysis. Some of the more disturbing details:
- More than 60% of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000
- By 2003, [corporate taxes] had fallen to just 7.4% of overall federal receipts
- most corporations that actually do owe taxes pay a rate less than 5%
- 94% of US-controlled companies and 89% of foreign-controlled companies paid zero to 4% in taxes
How much of the Bush $2T 2004 budget pays for corporations, and how much for humans? It's probably a lot better than 7.4% paid for corporate services. Especially when you include that $200B Iraq War.
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