Dell Inc., the world's second- biggest personal-computer maker, said it plans to buy companies to boost its services unit, expanding sales outside its main business of selling PCs.

"I expect to see acquisitions there and significant investment to enable us to build capability in the software and services area," Michael Dell, chief executive officer of the Round Rock, Texas-based company, said today at a press conference in Shanghai. He didn't identify countries or target companies.

Dell is also investing in emerging markets as it lost the top spot in global PC sales to Hewlett-Packard Co. last year and earnings growth slowed, prompting founder Michael Dell to return as chief executive officer in January. The company began selling a cheaper PC in China today, expanding in a market where more than 90 percent of 1.3 billion people don't own computers.

"Faster sales growth in China could really give Dell a boost because of how big the market is and how much potential it has," William Bao Bean, an analyst with Deutsche Securities Co. in Hong Kong, said before the briefing. "Smaller cities and towns are really where the growth is in China because incomes are rising and people are shopping for their first computers.''

He has a "buy" rating on Lenovo Group Ltd., Dell's biggest rival in China.

Dell said the services unit, whose operations include setting up computer networks and providing customer support, has annual sales of about $6 billion. That's about 11 percent of its $55.9 billion revenue in the fiscal year ended Feb. 3.