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Dell names new enterprise chief as profit drops 18 per cent

Marius Haas, a former head of HP's networking division, will run Dell's enterprise business

Dell has tapped a former Hewlett-Packard executive to run its server, networking and storage division, an important area for Dell as it tries to expand its datacentre business and reduce its dependence on PCs.

Marius Haas was head of HP's networking business before leaving two years ago to join an investment firm. On Tuesday he was named president of Dell's enterprise solutions business, where he'll oversee the engineering, development and marketing of Dell's enterprise products.

Haas replaces Brad Anderson, who ran Dell's enterprise division since 2005 and is now leaving the company.

Dell announced the news on the same day it reported financial results for its second quarter, which closed Aug. 3. Its profit for the period declined 18 pe rcent from a year earlier, to $US732 million, while revenue fell 8 percent to $14.48 billion, Dell said.

Its server and networking sales were among the highlights for the quarter, up 14 per cent from last year, while sales of storage products were down 13 per cent. Together, the three product categories account for about one-fifth of Dell's overall business.

Most of Dell's money still comes from desktop PCs, sales of which were down 9 per cent from last year, and from laptops and other mobility products, which were down 19 per cent. Revenue from services was down 3 per cent, Dell said.

Dell is in the midst of a turnaround effort to make more money from higher-margin products such as software and services, and those products are often sold hand in hand with data center equipment, making Dell's enterprise products business important.

As part of the effort, Dell has been buying up software companies such as SonicWall, AppAssure, Scalent and, most recently, Quest Software, which at $2.6 billion will be one of its biggest acquisitions to date. It hopes to package those products with its enterprise hardware to expand its sales.

Revenue for the quarter just ended was below what financial analysts had been expecting, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Financial. Its earnings before one-time items beat the forecast, however, coming in at $0.50, compared with the analyst forecast of $0.45.

Dell's shares on the Nasdaq ended the trading day at $12.34, down 1.75 per cent. In trading after hours they slipped a further 2.7 per cent to $12.00 at the time of this report.

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