Dell: the job cuts will continue until morale improves

Dell Inc. (NASD: DELL) had a better quarter than expected. But, the highlight of its earnings release was the announcement that it would let go 8,800 people, about 10% of its staff. After job cuts by Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), it is beginning to look like a mature tech trend.

Dell benefited from raising prices on its PCs and getting components for less money. Reading between the lines, that may be bad for Intel Corp. (NASD:INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NYSE: AMD) both of which supply Dell with x86 chips for servers and PCs.

For its first fiscal quarter of 2008, Dell had revenue of $14.6 billion, operating income of $947 million and earnings per share of $0.34. Revenue was up 3% and net was off a fraction. Results are still preliminary because the company is in the midst of an accounting probe involving the Justice Department.

Dell has a 14% year-on-year improvement in average selling prices. So, the company's focus on selling machines with more features at a better price worked fairly well.

Dell maintained its lead in the US server market and server revenue led the company's revenue improvement with growth of 19 percent year on year to $1.6 billion. Revenue from laptops rose slightly to $4 billion and desktop revenue dropped slightly to $4.9 billion.

Dell's near-term future seems to be based on two things. The first is whether it can cut 10% of its people without hurting service. If so, the savings are considerable going forward. The other project that needs to work for Dell is putting its computers into retail outlets like Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT). With only 3% revenue growth, it needs another sales channel to restart top-line growth.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.