Dell net income falls, revenue soars in Q4

Personal computer maker Dell reported a 4.84 per cent decline in its fourth quarter net income at $334 million, while the company's revenue grew in each segment.

In the year-ago period, the company had a net income of $351 million, Dell said in a statement.

Total revenues of the firm rose by 11 per cent from the year-ago period to $14.9 billion in the fourth quarter ending January 29, 2010.

The company said sales in rapidly growing economies were up strongly. In the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), revenue increased by 72 per cent from the year-ago period.

"We achieved solid revenue growth in every part of our business. Our commercial units are well poised for profitable growth as demand continues to return because we're meeting customer requirements for higher-value, higher-margin servers, storage systems and services," Dell's CFO Brian Gladden said.

The personal computer maker's gross margin fell to 16.6 per cent in the November to January quarter from 17.2 per cent in the same period last fiscal.

Dell is "cautiously optimistic" about the next financial year. The company saw demand in the important commercial business continuing to return during the fourth quarter and expects the trend to continue in FY11.

The company said that revenue from all its four business segments -- public, consumers, large enterprise, and small and medium business-- has improved.

Dell witnessed a 16 per cent jump in its public segment revenue at $3.8 billion and an 11 per cent increase in consumers revenue at $3.5 billion.

In large enterprise segment, revenue was $4.2 billion, up 8 per cent, and small and medium business revenue was up by 10 per cent to $3.3 billion.

Dell's server sales were also 26 per cent higher, while sales in its tech services division jumped 51 per cent year-over-year.