Dell doesn't want to be outdone by rival Lenovo on the advertising front.

Dell plans to start an $80 million ad campaign this month, to help boost slowing sales of its personal computers, Bloomberg News reported.

Chinese PC maker Lenovo, which has a headquarters in Morrisville, started its own ad campaign last month, with an estimated cost of $100 million.

The campaigns even feature similar, dueling taglines.

Dell is done in Winston-Salem.

The company on Sunday finally stopped production at its factory that made desktop computers and opened with great fanfare in 2005.

Any further activity at the 750,000-square-foot plant would be “part of the exiting and shut-down work required,” Dell spokesman David Frink told the Winston-Salem Journal. He would not give a final closing date.

Dell first announced a year ago that it planned to shut the plant but repeatedly delayed the move to meet increasing demand. Dell announced on Sept. 10 that it would close the plant this month.

Dell workers are getting yet another reprieve.

The Winston-Salem Journal is reporting this morning that because of increasing demand for desktop computers, Dell will keep its Forsyth County plant open until the end of October.

It's the third time the company has extended its deadline for closing the plant.

The company had planned to close in January, putting 905 people out of work  It then extended the deadline to April 30 and then July 31.

About 500 employees remain at the plant.

The change of heart has cost Dell. After it announced the closing, the company paid back about $26.5 million in local incentive money, the newspaper reported. Under terms of the agreement, it would have been able to keep about half of that by making it to the end of October, according to reporter Richard Craver.

The company has also paid back state incentives.

Dell still isn't ready to shut down its computer factory in Winston-Salem.

The company now plans to keep the facility open through the end of July, about three months longer than expected.

Dell notified the plant's workforce of the decision this morning. The plant employs about 400 Dell workers and an undisclosed number of contract employees.

The delay is good news for the Triad region, but it's a temporary reprieve for a factory that once was seen as a symbol of the state's evolving economy. Dell opened the factory in 2005 after state and local officials promised an incentives package worth more than $280 million. Employment at the plant peaked at 1,100 people.

Dell announced last fall it planned to shut the plant by the end of January amid the global recession and weakening demand for desktop PCs. In December, it postponed that move to late April.

Dell plans to keep its Winston-Salem plant open until April to handle rebounding demand for desktop computers.

The company announced in October that it would close the factory next month and lay off about 900 employees. About half of those workers were let go in November.

But Dell is "continuing to see signs of demand improvement" and needs the factory to stay open about three months longer than expected to supplement manufacturing being done at other facilities, said spokesman Venancio Figueroa.

The company will offer the plant's remaining 400 workers retention bonuses to keep them on the job through April, he added. The amount will vary by position.

Figueroa declined to comment on whether the factory might stay open even longer, if demand continues to increase. "I'm not going to speculate beyond April."

Just a day after Dell laid off about 400 workers at its Winston-Salem computer factory, the company reported weaker quarterly sales and profit.

Dell is slashing jobs and cutting costs to offset slowing sales. Bigger rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer are seeing sales increase.

Dell reported today that profit fell 54 percent to $337 million during the third quarter, which included the back-to-school shopping season. Sales dropped 15 percent to $12.9 billion.

The company's margin was hurt partly by $102 million used for "organizational effectiveness actions," including the October decision to close the Winston-Salem factory, chief financial officer Brian Gladden said on a conference call with Wall Street analysts.

On Wednesday, about 400 employees at the Winston-Salem plant worked their last shift, the Winston-Salem Journal reported. That plant, which open in 2005 after Dell received the promise of more than $280 million in state and local incentives, is scheduled to close in January. About 900 workers will lose their jobs once the plant closes.

Dell will save about $66,000 by repaying early the $26.5 million it received in incentives from Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

The Winston-Salem Journal reported that because Dell will pay back the money this week, local officials will give the company the discount.

Dell announced last month that it will shutter its Winston-Salem PC manufacturing plant in January, and lay off about 900 workers. The plant opened in 2004 after state and local officials promised a record incentives package.

The company could have waited to pay the money back next year.

"They want to get the thing cleared up and paid off," Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines told the newspaper. He added that the city won't lose anything by offering a discount because it can re-invest the money sooner.

Dell has already repaid $1.5 million it received from the state for meeting hiring goals in 2006 and 2007.

Read the full Winston-Salem Journal report here.

The planned closure of the Dell computer plant in Winston-Salem is already rippling through the state's economy.
Dell is shutting down its facility in January and laying off 900 workers. The company repaid the state more than $1.5 million in job-creation grants it had received.
This week Diversco, a provider of building service contractors, said it will lay off 55 workers who had been part of a service contract with Dell.

Dell has repaid the state $1.51 million in grants it received for creating jobs at its soon-to-close Winston-Salem computer plant in 2006 and 2007, a Commerce Department official said today.

Dell also qualified for a jobs grant for 2008, but never received that money from the state, said Katharine Neal, an assistant secretary at Commerce.

The company announced that it plans to close the plant in January because of weak PC demand and lay off 900 workers.

The factory opened in 2004 after state and local officials promised a record incentives package worth more than $280 million. While seen by supporters as a symbol of North Carolina's evolving manufacturing base, critics attacked the incentives as a government handout to a wealthy corporation.

Dell has agreed to repay more than $26 million in incentives from Winston-Salem and Forsyth County as it prepares to close its PC manufacturing plant.

Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines sent a letter this week confirming that Dell will pay back $15.5 million to the city within 30 days, the Associated Press reported. Dell also will repay $11 million in grants and county costs.

Dell announced this month it plans to close the plant, which opened in 2004, by the end of January. About 600 workers will be let go next month and 300 more early next year.

The company blamed the slump in PC sales amid the recession. Some of the production work will be shifted to Mexico.

Dell built the plant in North Carolina largely because state and local officials promised the company a record incentives package worth more than $280 million in tax breaks and other incentives. N.C. Commerce Department officials have said they expect Dell will repay $1.5 million to the state, but not $3.6 million the state spent on workforce training.