Dell delays 10-K filing as shares head further south

As Georges Yared wrote this morning, Dell Inc.'s (NASDAQ: DELL) accounting irregularities are the least of its problems these days, but perhaps they are at the root of the company's problems. It seems that Dell is in a fully-mired slump on almost all fronts right now: its shares are stagnant (and have been for a while), its sales are down while competitor HP is growing, many of the exec staff has left recently (and much new blood has arrived), and the company has now found possible mischievous actions within its finance controls department. What a mess.

So, regarding the accounting mess currently underway in Round Rock, the company has delayed filing its latest 10-K with the SEC while it digs into further dirt piles within is accounting and financial areas to see just what the heck is going on in there. The "evidence of misconduct" sounds like old hat these days: someone (or more than one) in accounting is cooking the books somehow. Possibilities are abundant: Did someone inflate revenue by accounting for sales before they occurred? Did someone decide to toss GAAP aside while trying to make Dell meet quarterly numbers?

Are you a Dell shareholder? If so, your voice should be loud and clear here: things need to start making a turnaround and pretty quickly. It's true that Sarbanes-Oxley has been a resource hog for many companies recently (it almost has to be by definition), but at Dell, I guess it wasn't on the list of priorities as irregularities were hidden, buried and stashed in an oil furnace somewhere. Shareholders deserve more, and so does the share price which almost doesn't deserve to be where it is until things are cleaned up.

DELL shares just opened down nearly 2% to $22.93.