Beaten Dell starts to pick up Amd chips

As expected, the world's largest PC maker announced on Thursday that it will ship Dimension desktops and two-processor servers equipped with AMD's chips by the end of the year. But also on Thursday, Dell revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an informal investigation into some of its accounting practices, including revenue recognition and end-of-quarter policies. In its second fiscal quarter, ended Aug. 4, the PC maker's revenue was $14.1 billion--a 5 percent increase, compared with last year. Net income was $502 million, down sharply from $1 billion a year ago. Earnings per share came out to 22 cents, exactly what the company had predicted in July, but 10 cents below initial expectations. On the financial front, Dell again blamed aggressive pricing and poor planning as the culprits behind its poor second-quarter performance. With little else to celebrate, Dell touted its market share gains over the last calendar quarter, as reported by IDC and Gartner. The company now holds 19.2 percent of the market, according to IDC. Dell intends to hold its market share even as it improves its profitability, Rollins said.