DELL SAID IT plans to shut its desktop PC plant in Austin Texas, as part of a bid to save $3 billion per year.

The troubled computer maker has been spinning like there's no tomorrow to paint a rosy picture of its future. But there can be no doubt that the axing of 900 jobs at its homeland plant is a blow to the local community

Thousands of other jobs are to go over the coming years. The outfit reckons around ten per cent of it workforce - or 8,000 people - are surplus to requirements and said it will get rid of them forthwith. Some 3,200 jobs have already been axed

As real men and women go home to tell their spouses and kids to tighten their belts, Wall Street investors endorsed the move by buying Dell stock, boosting the price by over a percentage point.

Dell will present its case to analysts this week.

Dell's spin is here, so long as you promise not to believe it enough to make spend money on it. µ