Dell recruits former HP exec as PC sales slump

Dell announced that former HP Networking Division head Marius Haas has joined the firm on the same day as it released disappointing Q2 financial results.

Haas will succeed Brad Anderson, who has been Dell's Enterprise Solutions chief since 2005, and Dell was quick to point out that under Haas's leadership HP "more than tripled its annual networking revenue".

Haas joins Dell from investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and will now be responsible for worldwide engineering, design, development and marketing of Dell enterprise products, including servers, networking and storage systems.

Highlights from Dell's Q2 results included the vendor's server and networking sales revenue increasing by 14 per cent, a six per cent increase in Dell-owned storage, while enterprise solutions and services income grew six per cent year-on-year to $4.9m (£3.1m).

However, overall revenue in the second quarter was $14.5bn (£9.1bn), an eight per cent drop from the previous year. Dell cited poor desktop PC and laptop sales as the main reason for the slump. Consumer revenue declined by 22 per cent.

Dell forecasts continued solid growth in its Enterprise Solutions, Services and Software divisions but also a "challenging end user computer environment in the second half of the year".

Because of the uncertain economic environment, competitive dynamics and "soft" consumer business, Dell expects Q3 revenue to decline by two to five per cent from its Q2 revenue level.

Dell's strategy has been to move away from its commodity PC business and to expand its recently formed Software Group. Its expansion plans have included acquiring management software vendor Quest Software for $2.4bn (£1.5bn) in July, and the purchase of internet security solutions provider SonicWALL in May.