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Nationally and in Texas, women-owned firms are on the upswing

07:46 AM CST on Wednesday, December 8, 2010

By SHERYL JEAN / The Dallas Morning News
sjean@dallasnews.com

Womens business ownership made big strides in Texas and nationally from 2002 to 2007, growing at four times the rate of mens ownership, according to details released Tuesday by the US Census Bureau.

However, men still controlled the bulk of businesses, payroll and sales.

Women owned 7.8 million businesses nationwide in 2007, up 20 percent from 2002, the last time the Census Bureau conducted its Survey of Business Owners. They accounted for 29 percent of private firms.

Texas ranked second nationally with 610,162 women-owned businesses, up 30 percent from 2002. They accounted for 28 percent of private businesses statewide. California had the most women-owned firms at 1 million.

Cynthia Pharr Lee, co-founder of Texas Women Ventures Fund, a Richardson firm that invests in women-led businesses, said the growth isnt surprising.

We see more women entering fields they havent been in before, becoming bolder about stepping out on their own, she said. We definitely see more women-owned businesses in manufacturing, construction and food manufacturing.

Census Bureau Deputy Director Thomas Mesenbourg said women business owners in 2007 had a major impact on the nations economy, employing 7.6 million people.

But women-owned businesses lagged in sales generation: Producing $1.2 trillion, or 4 percent, compared with $8.5 trillion, or 28 percent, for businesses owned by men.

Most US firms owned by women were small: Two percent had revenue topping $1 million and less than 1 percent employed 100 or more people. In Texas, businesses owned by women generated $96.3 billion in sales.

Dallas was No. 6 among US cities, with 33,390 women-owned firms. Houston was No. 4 (63,435), San Antonio was No. 8 (30,642) and Austin was No. 13 (22,701). New York was first with 305,145. Dallas-Fort Worth ranked as the seventh metropolitan area in women-owned firms, with 169,863. Men in Texas owned nearly 1.1 million firms, or 50 percent. Nationally, men owned 51 percent of private businesses. About 390,000 businesses in Texas and 4.6 million nationally were equally owned by men and women.

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Dell’s Ron Garriques, of Mobile Business, to Depart
November 17, 2010, 7:20 PM EST

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By Aaron Ricadela

(Updates with analyst’s comment in fourth paragraph.)

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) — Dell Inc.’s Ron Garriques, who runs the division that focuses on mobile devices, is departing amid lackluster demand for the company’s smartphones and tablet-style computers.

Garriques will step down as president of the communications solutions business, which includes the Streak tablet, on Jan. 28, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said in a statement today.

Under Garriques, sales of Dell’s mobile communications products have been tepid, said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Kaufman Bros. in San Francisco who has a “hold” recommendation on Dell shares and doesn’t own them. Dell, the No. 3 PC supplier, hired Garriques in 2007, after Chief Executive Michael Dell retook the reins to revive growth that slowed under Kevin Rollins.

“Mobility for Dell has been somewhat disappointing,” Wu said. The Streak, which runs Google Inc.’s Android operating system and sports a 5-inch screen, is “too small to be a tablet and too big to be a smartphone. That really hurt sales of the product.”

Before joining Dell, Garriques worked at Motorola Inc., where he oversaw the once-popular Razr phones. He initially ran Dell’s consumer business before taking charge of the communications unit last year.

Reorganization Afoot

Garriques will get a severance payment of $1.44 million and an incentive plan payment of $378,000, Dell said. He will also receive two payments of $3.15 million next year for consulting.

Dell has reorganized its product groups to dispense with the unit Garriques led, and won’t hire a direct replacement, spokesman David Frink said. Dell units that sell to consumers, large companies and government entities will each take responsibility for marketing mobile products for their customers, he said.

Jeff Clarke, Dell’s vice chairman for operations and technology, will take responsibility for mobile product development and operations.

“It’s going to simplify and accelerate our momentum in this space,” Frink said.

–Editors: Tom Giles, Nick Turner.

To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco at aricadela@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net.

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