Nearly a year of wars over who will control the company has left the hardware maker Dell in real trouble. Michael Dell and his friends in the city want to take the company private so that it can restructure without pesky shareholders moaning that they are not getting any cash. The move is opposed by some shareholders who think he is getting the company too cheaply.

Meanwhile it appears that the company has been destracted and is watching its sales slump.

This quarter's figures show that the company’s quarterly profit has plunged 72 per cent from a year ago. Of course Dell is blaming falling PC sales. Dell’s profit for the second fiscal quarter slid to $204 million, compared with $732 million in the same period last year. It is the seventh consecutive decline in profits for the former number one PC maker.

To be fair to Dell the the results were slightly better than the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street expected. Revenues were flat at $US14.5 billion, with analysts expecting a decline. Dell's chief financial officer Brian Gladden admitted that things were challenging but the company was seeing growth in its enterprise, services and software businesses.