Dell securities

Dell has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission an offer of up to $500 million debt securities consisting of senior debentures, notes or bonds in one or more series. Dell will publicly offer the securities from time to time and will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including capital expenditures. Pending such uses, the company will invest the net proceeds in marketable securities.

Multiple zones

The UK arm of US reseller Multiple Zones has experience a strong quarter ended 31 March, when its sales jumped nearly 70 per cent. The reseller, which formerly concentrated on selling Mac products, revealed that PC sales account for over 20 per cent of overall sales. Multiple Zones had a worldwide turnover of about $500 million last year.

AIM companies

Shares listed on AIM took a slight tumble last week when a change in tax relief rules - previously announced in the budget - ended on 6 April.

More than one third of the 312 companies, which are listed on AIM, had qualified for the tax break.

ARM shares

ARM Holdings, the Cambridge-based microchip designer, has increased the share price for its forthcoming flotation, raising the valuation from a mid-price of #160 million to #247 million. The shares will now be offered in the range of 500p to 575p, against the previous figures of 325p to 385p.

The final price is expected to be finalised within the next few weeks.

AMD loss

AMD has posted a larger than expected loss for its first quarter ended 31 March. It made a loss of $55.8 million, compared with a profit of $12.9 last year. Revenue for the quarter slipped two per cent to $540.9 million from $551.9 million last year.

Tetra options

Tetra has granted its employees 259,500 options to acquire ordinary shares in the accountancy vendor.

The price at which the options are exercisable is #2.56 per share. No consideration was paid for the options of which 100 per cent are exercisable in normal circumstances after 30 March 2001.

Intel gain

Intel chairman Andrew Grove realised a gain of $49 million for stock options exercised in 1997. Grove acquired 648,000 Intel shares through options grants in 1997 and sold 520,000 of them, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A year earlier, Grove netted $95 million through exercising stock options.

In 1997, he received a salary of $465,000, up from $425,000 a year earlier.

His bonus was $2.79 million, up from $2.58 million a year earlier.