Brian Gladden, chief financial officer: “Our results for the first half of the fiscal year reflect our commitments and are enabling us to accelerate the reshaping of our portfolio while delivering substantially higher operating income. We’re maintaining our focus on developing higher-value solutions and services to drive stronger profitability and smartly manage a balance of growth, increased operating income and cash flow.”

Company Outlook:

Dell is focused on delivering IT solutions that provide both efficiency and flexibility, as the company aligns its business with large and faster growing markets, and creates a broader base of recurring revenue streams with higher profit potential. Based on consistent execution in the first half of the fiscal year, the continued management of lower-margin business and a positive mix shift to Dell intellectual property and higher-valued products, Dell is raising its non-GAAP operating income growth expectation for FY 2012 to 17-23 percent year-over-year from 12-18 percent. Based on strategic decisions to redirect resources from lower- to higher-value solutions and a more uncertain demand environment, the company also is revising its full-year revenue-growth outlook to 1-5 percent from the previous range of 5-9 percent. In the third quarter, Dell expects to see revenue roughly flat relative to Q2, which is in line with seasonality over the past two years.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services that give them the power to do more. For more information, visit www.dell.com. As previously announced, the second quarter analyst call with Michael Dell, chairman and CEO; Brian Gladden, CFO; and Brad Anderson, senior vice president, Enterprise Solutions Group, will be webcast live today at 4 p.m. CDT and archived at www.dell.com/investor. To monitor highlighted facts from the analyst call, follow on the Dell Investor Relations Twitter account at: http://twitter.com/dellshares or hashtag #DellEarnings. To communicate directly with Dell, go to www.dell.com/dellshares.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures:

This press release includes information about non-GAAP operating income, non-GAAP net income, and non-GAAP earnings per share (collectively with non-GAAP gross margin and non-GAAP operating expenses, the “non-GAAP financial measures”), which are not measurements of financial performance prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. In the following tables, Dell has provided a reconciliation of each historical non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure under the heading “Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and has presented a detailed discussion of its reasons for including the non-GAAP financial measures and the limitations associated with those measures under the heading “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures.” Dell encourages investors to review the reconciliation and the non-GAAP discussion in conjunction with Dell’s presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures.

Special Note on Forward-Looking Statements:

Statements in this press release that relate to future results and events (including statements about Dell’s future financial and operating performance, anticipated customer demand, global market trends, customer market focus, sales structure strategies, enterprise solutions strategies, component costs, cost controls, supply chain improvements, strategic investments and timing of the close of the Force10 Networks acquisition, as well as the financial guidance with respect to revenue and non-GAAP operating income) are forward-looking statements and are based on Dell's current expectations. In some cases, you can identify these statements by such forward-looking words as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “confidence,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “should,” “will” and “would,” or similar expressions. Actual results and events in future periods may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements because of a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors, including: intense competition; Dell’s cost-cutting measures; Dell’s ability to effectively manage the growth of its distribution capabilities and add to its product and services offerings; Dell’s ability to effectively manage periodic product and services transitions; weak global economic conditions and instability in financial markets; Dell’s ability to generate substantial non-U.S. net revenue; weak economic conditions and additional regulation affecting Dell’s financial services activities; Dell’s ability to achieve favorable pricing from its vendors; Dell’s ability to deliver consistent quality products and services; Dell’s reliance on third-party suppliers for product components, including reliance on several single-sourced or limited-sourced suppliers; successful implementation of Dell’s acquisition strategy; Dell’s product, customer, and geographic sales mix, and seasonal sales trends; access to the capital markets by Dell or its customers; loss of government contracts; the risk of temporary suspension or debarment from contracting with U.S. federal, state and local governments as a result of settlements of an SEC investigation by Dell and Dell’s Chairman and CEO; customer terminations of or pricing changes in services contracts, or Dell’s failure to perform as it anticipates at the time it enters into services contracts; Dell’s ability to obtain licenses to intellectual property developed by others on commercially reasonable and competitive terms; information technology and manufacturing infrastructure disruptions or breaches of data security; Dell’s ability to hedge effectively its exposure to fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates; counterparty default; unfavorable results of legal proceedings; expiration of tax holidays or favorable tax rate structures, or unfavorable outcomes in tax audits and other compliance matters; Dell’s ability to attract, retain, and motivate key personnel; Dell’s ability to maintain strong internal controls; changing environmental and safety laws; the effect of armed hostilities, terrorism, natural disasters, and public health issues; and other risks and uncertainties discussed in Dell’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended Jan. 28, 2011. In particular, Dell’s expectations with regard to revenue and non-GAAP operating income for the full fiscal year ending Feb. 3, 2012 assume, among other matters, that there is no significant decline in economic conditions generally or demand growth specifically, no significant change in product mix patterns, continued successful management of lower-margin businesses, continued successful demand planning and forecasting, no supply chain disruptions, and no significant adverse component pricing or supply movements. Dell assumes no obligation to update its forward-looking statements.