“You will see us be reasonably active,” he said. “We have a talented team of people that includes people who have been at Dell a long time and understand the Dell culture in the transactions that we’ve done and know why those have succeeded or not. We are rapidly developing that, and we’ve added some talent to help us do that.”

And what sectors is Dell (DELL) most interested in? Health-care information technology, as the Perot acquisition clearly suggests. “When you look at the health-care space, it’s the one sector of the economy that has the least amount of IT, and we see it as very promising for growth,” Dell said. “There’s usually more technology at the grocery store than there is at your doctor’s office.”

“This significantly expands Dell’s enterprise-solutions capabilities and makes Perot Systems’ strengths available to even more customers around the world,” Dell CEO Michael Dell said in a statement. “There will be efficiencies from combining the companies, but the acquisition makes such great sense because of the obvious ways our businesses complement each other.”

The deal is expected to close some time in January and when it does, Perot will become Dell’s services unit.

An interesting move. While there had been speculation that Dell was looking to acquire a handset company like Palm (PALM), it seems Dell was far more interested in boosting its enterprise business by acquiring an outsourcer like Perot.

Dell (DELL) earned $472 million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $12.76 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had expected it to earn 22 cents a share on $12.6 billion in revenue. Dell shares spiked nearly seven percent when the news was released, oddly, at 3:57–three minutes before the close of trading Thursday (click on the image below).

Lousy afternoon for someone in Dell Investor Relations. Anyway….

In a statement, CEO Michael Dell said demand for the company’s products appears to have stabilized and, believe it or not, things are starting to look up.

“If current demand trends continue, we expect revenue for the second half of the year to be stronger than the first half,” Dell said in a statement. “We are expanding our capabilities in enterprise technology and services and investing in our core business to distinguish Dell both with customers and in operating performance.”

It is true that we are exploring smaller-screen devices….For the last three years, we have integrated 3G radios into our notebooks. We already have agreements with many mobile carriers around netbook devices, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future.

– Dell CEO Michael Dell does his small part to push the Dellephone rumor along.

After market close Thursday, Dell reported its lowest fourth-quarter profit since 2002. Net income was $351 million, or 18 cents a share, down 48 percent from the $679 million, or 31 cents a share, reported in the same period last year. Worse, sales fell to $13.4 billion–a 16 percent drop from the $16 billion the company reported last year.

Ugly. Like its rivals, Dell (DELL) has been hit hard by the world-wide economic slowdown and declines in consumer spending.

“Customers know they need information technology, and we think we’re best able to help them use IT to improve productivity,” said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer. “But a lot of IT spending is being deferred until there’s better economic visibility.”

Interestingly, Dell said it has increased its cost-reduction goal to $4 billion from $3 billion, but it didn’t say how it plans to hit that number. Could there be further job cuts in the offing?

Dell: ‘How can we help [you to expand IT in Russia]?’

Putin: ‘We don’t need help. We are not invalids. We don’t have limited mental capacity.’”

– Dell CEO Michael Dell picks the wrong question to ask Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Davos

What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”

– Michael Dell explains what he’d do were he CEO of Apple (AAPL), circa 1997

Weakening economic conditions have forced Dell (DELL) to add a new benefit to its already tenuous employee salary packages: a week of unpaid leave. In an effort to “better position the company for long-term competitiveness,” the company is asking workers to consider taking five days off without pay–the theory being that five days off without pay is better than six months off on unemployment in a lousy economy.

“[Our goal] is to address costs in creative ways, in a way that gives our employees more choices than perhaps have existed in the past,” said spokesman David Frink. “We’re looking to use voluntary cost reduction options whenever possible so fewer involuntary actions would be necessary.”

A foreboding announcement from Dell, which has already reduced headcount by about 10 percent (8,900 employees) this year. ’Course, if this initiative doesn’t work out, CEO Michael Dell could always shut down the company and return the money to the shareholders. …

Make that two years or less.

I wonder if Michael Dell would shut Apple (AAPL) down and give the money back to its shareholders now?

No. Better to let history make itself, as it always has, and focus on making news. And it’s likely there will be quite a bit of it coming out of D: All Things Digital 6. With this year’s lineup, how could there not? Microsoft’s Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer onstage together just a month before Gates steps back from his day-to-day duties as company chairman. Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes talking strategy as the media giant prepares to spin off Time Warner Cable and tries to figure out just what the hell to do with AOL. Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless (VZ) and FCC Chaiman Kevin Martin appearing separately, but together offering an insider view of the telecom industry as it grapples with issues of Net neutrality, open access and early termination fees. And then there’s Yahoo’s (YHOO) Jerry Yang and Sue Decker, who’ve been struggling to right a foundering Internet pioneer as it battles Google (GOOG), Microsoft, investor-agitator Carl Icahn and itself.

And that’s just a sampling. Clearly, there’s much to talk about. Much news to be made.

Sure, we may not have managed to arrange another tete-a-tete as historic as last year’s Gates/Jobs interview.

But we did manage to get Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Yahoo Co-Founder Jerry Yang on the same stage–albeit at different times. Still, no easy feat, that.

And who knows, perhaps we’ll get them onstage together as well.

So join us at d6.allthingsd.com tomorrow for as-it-happens, all-access coverage of the conference. Liveblogs of the sessions and demos. Videos of the speakers. Photos of attendees. You’ll find it all here.

(Photo illustration by Beth Callaghan)

Dell (DELL) will conclude its first first official analyst meeting in three years later today. And judging from the street’s tepid reaction to it, the company probably could have postponed it for yet another year. The big news this afternoon: Dell isn’t planning any large acquisitions, which for a company in Dell’s current position is something of a truism. “I wouldn’t hold your breath for a big acquisition,” CEO Michael Dell explained today. “There are a number of network-effect acquisitions, where we can acquire a product line or a key methodology or a key group of skills that we can leverage across our entire network. Our acquisitions will be that kind of thing.”

Asked back in 1997 what he would do if he were CEO of Apple (AAPL), Michael Dell replied, “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.“

Put the same question about Dell (DELL) to Apple CEO Steve Jobs today and he might offer a similar answer. Dell on Monday announced plans to shutter a desktop computer manufacturing plant in Austin, Texas – a move that will eliminate about 900 jobs. And the company is performing a “strategic assessment of ownership alternatives” for its Dell Financial Services unit. Translation: “Anyone wanna buy a financial-services group?”

All this, just days before Dell’s analyst meeting- an event which most attendees appear to be approaching with a healthy skepticism. “We believe investors will be disappointed that milestones and financial targets will not be given,” Lou Miscioscia, an analyst at Cowen and Co., wrote in a recent research note. Shaw Wu, from American Technology Research, takes an even dimmer view of the meeting. He’s not even going to bother to attend.

Not exactly the anticipation you’d expect for Dell’s first analyst meeting in years. But then Dell’s recent performance isn’t much to get excited about. Certainly, Michael Dell has fallen a bit short of his to turn the business around within 18 months of his return to the CEO slot. As Fort Pitt Capital Management analyst Kimberly Caughey says, “Investors are a funny lot: They expect you to keep your word.”

This according to a survey of IT professionals conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association. Asked to list the most influential tech personalities of the last 25 years, 84% of respondents listed Gates, and 73% listed Jobs. Also appearing on the list: Dell CEO Michael Dell (53% of respondents); Linux founder Linus Torvalds (47%); Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (also 47%); Cisco CEO John Chambers (44%); Oracle CEO Larry Ellison (36%); Vint “Father of the Internet” Cerf (35%); Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (also 35%); and eBay CEO Meg Whitman (30%).