There's no love lost between Steve Jobs and Dell founder Michael Dell. Back in 1997, when Michael was CEO of Dell, he famously told a group of IT big wigs, ""What would I do [if I were in charge of Apple]? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."Oh, Michael. That's the kind of statement that waits in a corner for years, thinking, "I'm going to bite him in the backside ... hard."
The time has come. Earlier today, Apple rose $6.05 (3.48%) in NASDAQ trading, closing at $180.00. Compared to Dell's standing, Apple's market value of $158.66 billion is now four times Dell's $38.97 billion.
Only a year ago, we were excited that Apple had doubled Dell's value. Here's to the next twelve months.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-02-2008 @ 10:23AM
Joe said...
That statement hasn't been waiting in a corner for years. Unless there are about 44,100 corners on the internet.
http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&q=I%27d+shut+it+down+and+give+the+money+back+to+the+shareholders.&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f
But internet's a big place, maybe there are that many corners!
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5-02-2008 @ 10:54AM
Edsel said...
Mr.l Dell was correct when he made that statement.
Apple Computer was on life support when Mr. Jobs returned late 1997. Were it not for Steve Jobs, Apple Computer would have been interred beside Commodore, Digital, Atari, Wang,......
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5-02-2008 @ 11:30AM
Brian said...
I own shares in both Apple and Dell and have done for years, the difference is that Apple could dig itself out of a hole but I have little faith that Dell can. They seem to be getting worse not better and I can see the 10x value in a few years time if Dell even still exists as is and hasn't been cherry picked apart.
5-02-2008 @ 11:57AM
David said...
I agree. Apple was a very different company when that statement was originally said. Steve Jobs has been instrumental to building who Apple is today. I believe that no other person would be able to transform Apple from who it was in 1997 to who it is today other than Steve Jobs because of his history with the company (including the bad bits - that arguably was behind his drive to return Apple to a successful business). I think any other CEO would have squandered Apple.
Also remember that this statement isn't Michael's current view of Apple. For example, he has repeatedly and openly stated that he would sell Mac OS on Dell Computers if he had the opportunity to do so. Michael's a business man and he's interested in what's good for business.
5-02-2008 @ 12:01PM
Heffer said...
@Brian - From somebody who just purchased a Dell XPS m1530 I have to say this has been the best Dell experience ever. They recently slashed an extra $100 off after a quick 5 minute phone call to price match a better deal that came out two weeks after my purchase.
I've previously made purchases in 2003 and 1997.
@Everyone - What was the context of Dell's comment? It almost seems like it was said in jest as a way of telling the media, "Duh, what else do you think I'm going to say."
5-02-2008 @ 12:43PM
Aron T said...
Clearly Mr. Dell was not correct... If he were a good CEO he would have the skills to turn the ship around and really give the stockholders what they deserve.
That's a large part of Dell's problem is that their business model is to just do what is safe rather than to innovate.
5-02-2008 @ 3:04PM
Richard said...
If Mr. Dell was correct, then it shouldn't have been possible to revive Apple, second coming of Jobs or not.
The point of the original poster is that Dell's comments were rather shortsighted.
5-02-2008 @ 11:02AM
Aron T said...
While I believe the statement of Michael Dell has been around the block a few times - this is definitely the first time AAPL has had a market cap quadruple that of DELL. Even when APPL was at 200 they were only 3.45 times more valuable. This is good news not just for Apple but for consumers as well. A tide of change is washing in and everyday people have more than just poorly constructed Windows machines to choose from.
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5-02-2008 @ 11:36AM
ibanlarr said...
Nice comparison chart showing the performance of Apple versus Dell:
http://switchtoamac.com/site/apple-now-worth-15866-billion-4-times-as-much-as-dell.html
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5-02-2008 @ 12:02PM
kevin said...
Let's brag about AAPL stock when it makes new highs... not when it's 20+ pts off it's high :-)
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5-02-2008 @ 12:22PM
hmurchison said...
Calculating worth is pretty useless IMO. Apple's worth is tied up in consumer products which is a rather fickle endeavor. If the iPod or iPhone stumbles Apple loses a good chunk of their worth overnight.
Dell's problem is that they've tried to do "everything" themselves and eventually lost out to HP which balances direct vs channel sales quite adroitly making their "logical workforce" much larger than Dell.
I'm happy for Apple's success but I often opine to myself "just how sustainable is it?"
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5-02-2008 @ 12:48PM
Aron T said...
pretty freaking sustainable - do you have any idea how much they have in cash reserves?
5-02-2008 @ 12:59PM
hmurchison said...
About 18 billion
But I'm an old enough computer vet to know that "hard to come...easy go" I've seen companies with dominant positions dissapear in a matter of years (cough Syquest). Apple won't make blunders like many of these relics did but I'm not too sure I'm going to count Dell out just yet. Dell's acquired EquaLlogic and is making a push into channel distribution. Their postion could strengthen over the next few years.
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5-02-2008 @ 5:43PM
tundraboy said...
Dell is a company that tried to defy gravity and prove that you can survive and prosper long term in the high tech industry without doing any meaningful R&D whatsoever.
That people actually swallowed this hooey and bought Dell stock to hold to retirement boggles my mind.
I never bought Dell stock. Its business model is to rely on the component suppliers for R&D and just build 'em generic and dirt cheap. You do that and eventually the Chinese will eat your lunch. Hell, even the Chinese, as demonstrated when they acquired IBM's PC business, understood that you can't survive in high tech without R&D.
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5-03-2008 @ 9:53AM
Dan Oblak - MacBigot.com said...
Dell wasn't doing much better than Apple in 1997, nor were they in 2001, when Mr. Dell was asked to explain his snippy comments from '97:
"If you look at proprietary computer companies, whether it's Digital or Silicon Graphics or Apple I think the fates are all relatively similar. We know how the movie ends. It's just a question of what happens in the middle. Apple has a very little customer base. If you look at the economics, it has been extremely hard for Apple to get a return on its R&D with a shrinking volume base. It's not to say that Apple's products aren't innovative or cool, but the economic factors here are so overwhelming, it's very hard for them to swim against that tide." -Michael Dell
The chart at the time: http://www.macbigot.com/articles/go2dell.html
It's clear (at least to me) from his comments both times that Mr. Dell was acting a lot more afraid of the Apple machine than he had reason to -- and we armchair pundits just found that really funny. Why would big Mr. Dell be afraid of Little Mr. Apple? The answer: they shouldn't have been -- but perhaps the Microsoft hegemony was being sustained at the time by a set of hidden rules about how PC manufacturers were 'encouraged' to treat Apple in public.
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5-05-2008 @ 10:17AM
Damian said...
While we're measuring:
Michael Dell: ▲$16.4 billion (2008) [1]
Steve Jobs: ▼US$5.4 billion (2008) [6]
Khm, khm...
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