Dell May Shrink Its Network of Factories Inbox

Dell, in a government filing this week, strongly suggested that it planned to shrink its network of factories as part of the computer company's drive to reduce costs. A computer being assembled at a Dell factory in Austin, Tex., that the company plans to close by the end of this year. At the end of last month, Dell disappointed investors by reporting a surprising 17 percent drop in quarterly profit, even though its sales increased 11 percent. Dell blamed the profit drop mainly on being too aggressive in price cutting to gain market share in some regions of the world.