Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) said yesterday that it would be restating revenue figures for the period of 2003 to 2006 (four years plus the Q1 period of 2007) and would be taking a $92 million cut as a result. The computer maker would change its revenue figure to take into account the restatements, changing its reported $12 billion in revenue for that period. If you recall, until this summer Dell was embroiled in an accounting scandal that saw firings and quite a bit of earnings changes for the last four years. In the grand scheme of things, though, Dell's scandal was tiny when compared to Worldcom or Enron.
This may be the last restatement for the company after it figured out that some senior managers and execs were cooking the books a bit to rev up quarterly earnings in order for the company to meet market expectations. How this happened for more than four years is still uncertain, as apparently former CEO Kevin Rollins as well as founder (and current CEO) Michael Dell were clueless to the accounting shenanigans. Perhaps now the company has some Sarbanes-Oxley compliance officers on board?
Dell reports Q3 results at the end of November, and it will be interesting to see if it's massive push into the consumer retail market has given the company the market share gains and headway it has needed for some time. According to Goldman Sachs, the opportunity is there for Dell. The question is if the company can leverage it to its advantage.
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