Execs cook the books at Dell

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

The executives involved in this remain unnamed, but perhaps, just perhaps, we know why there has been such a big shake-up in the executive ranks at Dell this year. An internal investigation at Dell has concluded that executives adjusted results in order to meet quarterly goals.

The conclusion of the investigation isn’t pretty: Dell will now reduce more than four years’ worth of earnings because it mislead auditors.

“The investigation identified evidence that certain adjustments appear to have been motivated by the objective of attaining financial targets,” the company said in a statement.

Net income for the restatement period–from 2003 through 2006 and the first quarter of 2007–will be reduced by between $50 million and $150 million, or 2 cents to 7 cents per share. Source: Forbes

We Say: Although you would expect this to be a negative, particularly in the short-term, some analysts are making the company a turnaround target. Me, I still love their laptops - I have owned 4 of them, and assuming that a mobile version of the nVidia 8800 hits one of their gaming laptops, I will likely buy another.