Dell Inc. said on Friday that its profit will fail to meet analysts' estimates for the second straight quarter after the world's largest personal-computer maker slashed prices to reclaim market share.

This prompted Dell's stock to tumble 9.9 percent, the biggest decline in more than five years. Dell shares dropped 2.19 U.S. dollars to 19.91-dollar a share at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock earlier fell as low as 18.95 dollars.

Dell Chief Executive Officer Kevin Rollins is struggling to fend off Hewlett-Packard Co., the No. 2 PC maker, and China's Lenovo Group Ltd., which have undercut Dell's prices. The competition has caused cracks in the so-called Dell Effect, a long- hailed ability to drive prices lower by buying cheaper parts and selling direct to customers.

"Aggressive pricing" was going to hit the company hard for the next six months, market analysts said.

Dell's sales will be 14 billion U.S. dollars in the quarter ending July 31, lower than the 14.2 billion average estimate of 25 analysts survey by Thomson Financial earlier.

Shares of rivals fell on concern that Dell's price cutting may hurt profit for all PC makers. Hewlett-Packard fell 1.28 dollars, or 4 percent, to 30.52 dollars and Gateway Inc. fell 14 cents, or 7.4 percent, to 1.75 dollars. Technology stocks are under pressure this week after Intel Corp. and Yahoo Inc. reported results that disappointed investors.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the No. 2 maker of PC chips behind Intel, dropped 16 percent on concern that Dell's announcement may signal PC demand is slipping.

Source: Xinhua