Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

[Elan Vital]

Dell to sell PCs, notebooks in China through Gome stores

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/dell-sell-pcs-notebooks-china/story.aspx?guid=%7B5E9D9DE5-7DC0...
By Aaron Back
Last Update: 5:28 AM ET Sep 24, 2007
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(Adds company comments, GOME share price, share placement by GOME chairman.)
BEIJING (MarketWatch) -- Personal computer vendor Dell Inc. (DELL:
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DELL27.76, -0.09, -0.3%) said Monday that from next month it will start selling its PCs and notebooks in China through the country's largest electronics retailer, GOME Group.
Sales will start through 50 GOME stores before expanding to more stores in the first half of next year, Dell said in a statement Monday.
The Chinese retailer, the parent company of Hong Kong-listed GOME Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd. (0493.HK), has around 950 stores across 210 cities in China, GOME Vice President Wang Junzhou said during a press conference Monday.
"For Dell, this is a great opportunity to extend connections with Chinese customers we have not reached in the past," Michael Tatelman, vice president of marketing and sales for Dell's global consumer business, said in the statement.
Dell, the world's second-largest PC vendor after Hewlett-Packard Co., has traditionally sold computers over the Internet or by telephone, but in May it said it would sell computers through Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the U.S.
Since then it has signed deals with retailers in the U.K., Japan and Russia.
"Although the direct model is great for many people, in Asian cultures and China in particular many people want to see and touch and feel things before they actually take them home," Tatelman said on the sidelines of the press conference.
Dell is the fourth-biggest computer vendor in China by shipments behind Lenovo Group Ltd., Hewlett-Packard, and Founder Technology Group Corp., according to research firms IDC and Gartner Inc.
"Our market share in China is obviously well below our global average, so we hope to be successful here and get our rightful share of the business," Tatelman said.
For GOME, the Dell arrangement will expand its PC product offerings amid increasingly heated competition. Last year, Best Buy Co., America's largest electronics chain, opened an outlet in Shanghai. Best Buy, which owns a majority stake in China's fourth-largest electronics retailer, Jiangsu Five Star Appliance Co., will be speeding up expansion of its retail network following encouraging sales from its Shanghai store, according to a person familiar with the matter.
At 0700 GMT, GOME Electrical Appliances' Hong Kong shares were down 9.5% at HK$13.52 following a share placement Friday by chairman and controlling shareholder Wong Kwong-yu, who sold 170 million shares at HK$13.74 each.
Wong raised HK$2.34 billion from the deal, cutting his stake in the company to 42.84% from 48.06%. No reason was given for the sale. Shares of GOME had more than doubled since the beginning of the year before the placement.
-Contact: 201-938-5400 End of Story