Dell Laptop Sales Slow, Company Profits Continue to Dip

Dell brought in $14.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 and a total of $56.9 billion for the year. While this sounds like a large sum of money, Dell brought in $16 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 and a total of 62.1 billion. The company is losing money as it struggles to adapt to the changing computing landscape.

“We continued to execute our long-term strategy in Q4, and realized a 6 percent increase in our enterprise solutions and services business,” Dell CFO Brian Gladden said in a press release. “We also continued to generate strong cash flow from operations of $1.4 billion in the quarter. Our strong balance sheet and cash position enabled the company to invest almost $5 billion in new capabilities and intellectual property this fiscal year, including great assets like Quest, SonicWall, Wyse and AppAssure.”

These investments in Dell’s enterprise business may not be enough to halt the company’s continued decline. Large enterprise revenue declined 5 percent since last year, and the company pulled in one percent less revenue from its small and medium business division.

Though Dell has launched tablets and smartphones in the past, they performed poorly at retail, and Dell’s consumer laptops have also declined in sales. Dell’s consumer division declined the most of all, a 20 percent drop from last year.

Dell announced that it was going private two weeks ago. The transition involves a $2 billion loan from Microsoft. Regarding this deal, Microsoft stated: “Microsoft is committed to the long term success of the entire PC ecosystem and invests heavily in a variety of ways to build that ecosystem for the future.”

The verdict’s still out on whether Microsoft’s investment will help Dell remain a key player in that aforementioned PC ecosystem.