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Dell has hit back at rival HP, whose CEO Meg Whitman said that Dell’s mega acquisition of EMC would be a big distraction for Dell employees.
Speaking to PCR at the Dell EMEA PartnerDirect Solutions Conference last week, Claire Vyvyan, vice president of Dell’s Enterprise Solutions Group, said of the rivalry: "I think it’s great fun. We’re competitive – we know we’re going to be number one. So I say: ‘Bring it on!’
"It’s all good advertising for Dell. Every time they write about us, that’s free advertising for us."
A Dell spokesperson added: “Four years ago, they wouldn’t acknowledge us in PR. They wouldn’t respond to anything we did. And now it’s quite funny – we sort of hiccup and they respond.”
Vyvyan commented: "And I won’t comment on their business. It’s none of my business. Their business is their business, they need to drive it. We know what we’re doing with our business, we know where we’re going, we’re very clear and we’re taking share off them. Bring it on!”
The spokesperson added that the EMC is not distracting for Dell, but that HP is distracted by the fact it split into two separate businesses.
Vyvyan said: "[The Dell/EMC deal] is not distracting at all – we’re very focused. HP also made a comment, which Michael Dell responded to very publicly, about the level of debt we’d have to pay down would be so substantial we’d not be able to drive innovation or make acquisitions.
"And Michael responded straight away to say that actually, the level of debt payment is significantly lower than EMC shareholder payments, and so the net cash in the business is low.
"So there’s no question where we’re going, there’s no question on our strategy and there’s no question we’re getting distracted by it."
‘Dell will be a leader in all four big pillars of IT’ – Michael Dell talks to the press
Dell is the number three PC vendor in the world right now according to IDC in terms of PC shipments, and outperformed the market in the last quarter. So what is Dell’s ambitions, is it get to that number one spot right away, or target a gradual increase in share year-on-year?
"We intend to be number one," Vyvyan said. "We expect it to be a gradual increase, because we aim to make money at it. The industry is consolidating into three [major PC] vendors.
"We’re building primarily on the enterprise B2B tech sector, but clearly the B2C tech sector is much broader and there are more players there.
"But the industry is consolidating, and that is driving quite big growth for us and we’re very focused on making sure we have the right products and services to make sure customers can create that environment in a really managed and secure way."
8 things you need to know from the Dell EMEA Solutions Conference 2015
