Dell has issued preliminary Q1 2017 financial results, revealing a small dip in revenue. The company also shrank its operating loss, which suggests Dell is getting more efficient ahead of its $67 billion buyout of EMC Corp.Although Dell is privately held, the company shares some financial metrics as part of its agreement to acquire EMC; that buyout is expected to be completed before October 2016.In its preliminary Q1 results, Dell said revenues dipped 2 percent to $13.2 billion but the company's operating loss was only $100 million -- a significant improvement from a $300 million operating loss in Q1 last year. Dell shared the results as part of a Denali Holding Inc. financial update. (Dell is organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Denali).Still, there are only preliminary results. Dell expects to share finalized Q1 results to qualified debt investors by June 2, 2016, the company said.
Dell: Surviving the Cloud Storm
Assuming Dell's finalized results aren't dramatically different from the preliminary figures, the company is holding up reasonably well amid the massive IT market shift from hardware and software toward cloud services.
Dell doesn't have its own public cloud. Instead, the company is betting on a range of cloud partnerships, plus Dell's own data center solutions. The EMC buyout would give Dell control over EMC's hyperconverged data center products, along with sister cloud companies like Pivotal and Virtustream.
Generally speaking, Dell's primary rivals -- ahead of the EMC deal -- are Cisco Systems Inc. , Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc. and Lenovo.
Cisco is expected to share quarterly financial results this Wednesday, May 18. Of the IT industry's major hardware providers, Cisco has arguably held up best.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise is expected to share Q2 2016 financial results on May 24. HP Enterprise has been boosting its cloud partnerships and hyperconverged hardware business, but the company's SaaS revenues have been falling in recent quarters.
HP Inc. is expected to share Q2 2016 earnings on May 25. The company remains far too dependent on PC sales, but 3D printing innovations could help to jumpstart the business.
Lenovo is expected to share quarterly results on May 19. The company continues to take PC market share, but overall business is slumping. During the recent Lenovo Accelerate 2016 partner conference, the company vowed to double down on hyperconverged data centers -- including a key partnership with Nutanix.
Joe Panettieri is co-founder & editorial director of MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E, the two leading news & analysis sites for managed service providers in the cybersecurity market.
