Dell, Inc.

The classic Dell logo. The circle was permanently added around it in late 2010.
Type	Public
Traded as	NASDAQ: DELL SEHK: 4331 NASDAQ-100 Component S&P 500 Component
Industry	Computer hardware, Computer software, IT consulting, IT services
Founded	Austin, Texas, U.S. (November 4, 1984 (1984-11-04))
Founder(s)	Michael Dell
Headquarters	1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States[1]
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Michael Dell (Chairman & CEO)
Products	Desktops, netbooks, notebooks, peripherals, servers, printers, scanners, smartphones, storages, televisions
Revenue	US$ 62.07 billion (2012)[2]
Operating income	US$ 04.43 billion (2012)[2]
Net income	US$ 03.49 billion (2012)[2]
Total assets	US$ 44.53 billion (2012)[2]
Total equity	US$ 08.91 billion (2012)[2]
Employees	100,300 (2011)[2]
Subsidiaries	Alienware, Dell Services, Force10, SonicWall
Website	Dell.com

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) is an American multinational computer technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest technological corporations in the world, employing more than 103,300 people worldwide.^[2] Dell is listed at number 41 in the Fortune 500 list.^[3] It is the third largest PC maker in the world after HP and Lenovo.^[4]

Dell has grown by both increasing its customer base and through acquisitions since its inception; notable mergers and acquisitions including Alienware (2006) and Perot Systems (2009). As of 2009, the company sold personal computers, servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, and computer peripherals. Dell also sells HDTVs, cameras, printers, MP3 players and other electronics built by other manufacturers. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce.

Fortune Magazine listed Dell as the sixth largest company in Texas by total revenue.^[5] It is the second largest non-oil company in Texas – behind AT&T – and the largest company in the Austin, Texas area.^[6]

History[link]

Dell traces its origins to 1984, when Michael Dell created PCs Limited while a student at the University of Texas at Austin. The dorm-room headquartered company sold IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components.^[7] Dell dropped out of school in order to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting about $300,000 in expansion-capital from his family.

In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design, the "Turbo PC", which sold for US$795.^[8] PCs Limited advertised its systems in national computer magazines for sale directly to consumers and custom assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options. The company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of operation.

The company changed its name to "Dell Computer Corporation" in 1988 and began expanding globally. In June 1988, Dell's market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share.^[9] In 1992, Fortune magazine included Dell Computer Corporation in its list of the world's 500 largest companies, making Michael Dell the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company ever.^[10]

Growth in 1990s and early 2000s[link]

From 1997 to 2004, Dell enjoyed steady growth and it gained market share from competitors even during industry slumps.^[11]

In 1996, Dell began selling computers through its website, and in 2002, it expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Dell's first acquisition occurred in 1999 with the purchase of ConvergeNet Technologies.

Dell surpassed Compaq to become the largest PC manufacturer in 1999. In 2002, when Compaq merged with Hewlett Packard (the 4th place PC maker), the combined Hewlett Packard took the top spot but struggled and Dell soon regained its lead.

In 2003, the company was rebranded as simply "Dell Inc." to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers.

In 2004, Michael Dell resigned as CEO while retaining the title of Chairman, handing the CEO title to Kevin Rollins who was the President and COO. Under Rollins, Dell began to loosen its ties to Microsoft and Intel, the two companies which were responsible for Dell's dominance in the PC business. During that time, Dell acquired Alienware, which introduced several new items to Dell products, including AMD microprocessors. To prevent cross-market products, Dell continues to run Alienware as a separate entity, but still a wholly owned subsidiary.^[12]

Missed expectations and return of founder[link]

However in 2005, while earnings and sales grew, sales growth slowed considerable, and the company stock lost 25% of its value that year.

The slowing sales growth has been attributed to the maturing PC market, which constituted 66% of Dell's sales, and analysts suggested that Dell needed to make inroads into non-PC businesses segments such as storage, services and servers. Dell's price advantage was tied to its ultra-lean manufacturing for desktop PCs, however this became less important as the market shifted to laptops, and as rivals such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer made their PC operations more efficient. Throughout the entire PC industry, declines in prices along with commensurate increases in performance meant that Dell had fewer opportunities to upsell to their customers (a lucruative strategy of encouring buyers to upgrade processor or memory), and as a result the company was selling a greater proportion of inexpensive PCs than before which eroded profit margins.^[11]

There has also been a decline in consumers purchasing PCs through the Web or on the phone, as increasing numbers were visiting consumer electronics retail stores. As well, many analysts were looking to innovating companies as the next source of growth in the technology sector. Dell's low spending on R&D relative to its revenue (compared to Apple Inc.) which worked well in the commoditized PC market prevented it from making inroads into more lucrative segments such as MP3 players.^[13]

Dell's reputation for poor customer service, which was exacerbated as it moved call centres offshore and as its growth outstripped its technical support infrastructure, came under increasing scrutiny on the Web. There was also criticism that it used faulty components for its PCs.^[14] There was also a battery recall in August 2006, as a result of a Dell laptop catching fire which caused much negative attention for the company, although later Sony was found to be responsible for the faulty batteries.^[11]

2006 marked the first year that Dell's growth was slower than the PC industry as a whole. By the fourth quarter of 2006, Dell lost its title of the largest PC manufacturer to rival Hewlett Packard which was invigorated thanks to a restructuring initiated by their CEO Mark Hurd.^{[13] [15] [16]}

After four out of five quarterly earnings reports were below expectations, Rollins resigned in January 2007 and founder Michael Dell assumed the role of CEO again. Dell announced a change campaign called "Dell 2.0," reducing headcount and diversifying the company's product offerings.

Recent plans and acquisitions[link]

• In 2006, Dell acquired Alienware, a manufacturer of high-end PCs popular with gamers.^[17][18][12]

• The company acquired EqualLogic on January 28, 2008, to gain a foothold in the iSCSI storage market. Because Dell already had an efficient manufacturing process, integrating EqualLogic's products into the company drove manufacturing prices down.^[19]

• In 2009, Dell acquired Perot Systems, based in Plano, Texas, in a reported $3.9 billion deal.^[20] Perot Systems provided Dell with applications development, systems integration, and strategic consulting services through its operations in the U.S. and 10 other countries. In addition, the acquisition of Perot brought a variety of business process outsourcing services, including claims processing and call center operations.^[21]

• On February 10, 2010, the company acquired KACE Networks a leader in Systems Management Appliances. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.^[22]

• On August 16, 2010, Dell announced plans to acquire the data storage company 3PAR.^[23] On September 2, Hewlett-Packard offered $33 a share for 3PAR, which Dell declined to match.^[24]

• On November 2, 2010, Dell acquired Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integration leader Boomi. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.^[25]

• In February 2011 the acquisition of Compellent by Dell was completed after the initial announcement of Dell's intention to buy the company was announced on 13 December, 2010

• On Friday February 24, 2012 Dell acquired Backup and Disaster Recovery software solution AppAssure Software of Reston, VA. AppAssure delivered 194 percent revenue growth in 2011 and over 3500% growth in the prior 3 years. AppAssure supports physical servers and VMware, Hyper-V and XenServer. The deal represents the first acquisition since Dell formed its software division under former CA CEO John Swainson. Dell added that it will keep AppAssure’s 230 employees and invest in the company.

Dell is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas

• In March 2012, USA Today said that Dell agreed to buy SonicWall, which acquisition was completed 9th May 2012^[26], a company with 130 patents. SonicWall which develops security products, is a network and data security provider^[27].

• On 2 April, 2012, Dell announced that it wants to acquire Wyse, global market-leader for thin client systems^[28]