These results reflect an excellent fourth quarter and outstanding year for Compaq . We're very pleased with the consistency of our financial progress, especially with the improvements in earnings and the growth of gross margins to 24.4 percent in the fourth quarter.
Growth is not as high [in the U.S.] as it was a year ago, but that's true for the industry. (But) we're seeing higher growth this year from Europe.
While market conditions will continue to be competitive, we fully intend to expand our business and grow market share profitably in 1999. The company will continue its aggressive drive of reduction of cost and operating expenses in the face of a very competitive market.
We looked closely at our market and business plan once it became clear that sales out of our North American commercial channels were not meeting our expectations. We are putting in place price reductions and aggressive promotions in the first and second quarter to reduce these channel inventories and accelerate the implementation of our Optimized Distribution Model.
With these actions, we are attempting to achieve channel inventories that support ODM by the end of the second quarter. Our outlook for the second quarter is cautious as we continue to assess the North American commercial market environment.
The focus of this new organization is to fully leverage the Internet to not only sell systems and solutions, but also to build stronger relationships with our customers -- from personalized Web sites for consumers to highly integrated extranets for global corporations.
Today is either the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning. Today we are making history.
This is the holy grail for advertisers and consumers. It is an online marketplace of qualified leads.
Copyright © 2024 Electric Goat Media. All Rights Reserved.