eolesen
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Apparently, there have been several higher ranking finance people at Dell fired over this.... Carty, as CFO and as head of the Audit Committee for the entire time this occured, is of course blameless
Dell to restate four years of results
Could reduce earnings by as much as $150M; reduction not as big as feared, stock rises after hours.
August 16 2007: 5:18 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -- Dell Inc. said Thursday it would restate four years of financial results, reducing net income for the period by as much as $150 million, after a lengthy audit found that top executives sought accounting adjustments to reach quarterly performance goals.
The review "identified evidence that certain adjustments appear to have been motivated by the objective of attaining financial targets," Dell said, adding that the changes "typically occurred at the close of the quarter."
Still, the changes were less drastic than what some analysts had expected.
"Most of the changes look relatively minimal to revenue and earnings per share as far as the restatement is concerned," said Brent Bracelin, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities in Portland, Oregon.
The company said the investigation raised questions about a number of accounting matters, mainly involving adjustments to reserve and accrued liability accounts.
Dell said it did not expect the restatements to have a "material" impact on its current balance sheet or on cash flows during the restatement period, which covered fiscal 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and the first fiscal quarter of 2007.
Shares of Dell rose 3 percent to $26.70 in after-hours trade from a close of $25.93 on Nasdaq.