DELL
Dell is an American multinational computer technology company based in Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Named after its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest technological corporations in the world, employing more than 145,000 people in the U.S. and around the world (Annual report 2018).
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals, HDTVs, cameras, printers, MP3 players, and electronics built by other manufacturers. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce, particularly its direct-sales model and its "build-to-order" or "configure to order" approach to manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications.[3][4] Dell was a pure hardware vendor for much of its existence, but with the acquisition in 2009 of Perot Systems, Dell entered the market for IT services. The company has since made additional acquisitions in storage and networking systems, with the aim of expanding their portfolio from offering computers only to delivering complete solutions for enterprise customers.[5][6]
Dell was listed at number 51 in the Fortune 500 list, until 2014.[7] After going private in 2013, the newly confidential nature of its financial information prevents the company from being ranked by Fortune. In 2015, it was the third largest PC vendor in the world after Lenovoand HP.[8] Dell is the largest shipper of PC monitors worldwide.[9] Dell is the sixth largest company in Texas by total revenue, according to Fortune magazine.[10] It is the second largest non-oil company in Texas – behind AT&T – and the largest company in the Greater Austin area. It was a publicly traded company (NASDAQ: DELL), as well as a component of the NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500, until it was taken private in a leveraged buyout which closed on October 30, 2013.
In 2015, Dell acquired the enterprise technology firm EMC Corporation; following the completion of the purchase, Dell and EMC became divisions of Dell Technologies.
History
Dell traces its origins to 1984, when Michael Dell created Dell Computer Corporation, which at the time did business as PC's Limited,[12][13] while a student of the University of Texas at Austin. The dorm-room headquartered company sold IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components.[14] Dell dropped out of school to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting $1,000 in expansion-capital from his family. In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design, the Turbo PC, which sold for $795.[15] PC's 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 grossedmore than $73 million in its first year of operation.
In 1986, Michael Dell brought in Lee Walker, a 51-year-old venture capitalist, as president and chief operating officer, to serve as Dell's mentor and implement Dell's ideas for growing the company. Walker was also instrumental in recruiting members to the board of directors when the company went public in 1988. Walker retired in 1990 due to health, and Michael Dell hired Morton Meyerson, former CEO and president of Electronic Data Systems to transform the company from a fast-growing medium-sized firm into a billion-dollar enterprise.[16]
The company dropped the PC's Limited name in 1987 to become Dell Computer Corporation and began expanding globally. In June 1988, Dell's market capitalization grew from $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share.[17] In 1992, Fortunemagazine 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.[18]
In 1993, to complement its own direct sales channel Dell planned to sell PCs at big-box retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, which would have brought in an additional $125 million in annual revenue. Bain consultant Kevin Rollins persuaded Michael Dell to pull out of these deals, believing they would be money losers in the long run.[19] Margins at retail were thin at best and Dell left the reseller channel in 1994.[20] Rollins would soon join Dell full-time and eventually become the company President and CEO.
Growth in the 1990s and early 2000s[edit]
Originally, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to the higher costs and unacceptably low-profit margins in selling to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site took off in 1996 and 1997. While the industry's average selling price to individuals was going down, Dell's was going up, as second- and third-time computer buyers who wanted powerful computers with multiple features and did not need much technical support were choosing Dell. Dell found an opportunity among PC-savvy individuals who liked the convenience of buying direct, customizing their PC to their means, and having it delivered in days. In early 1997, Dell created an internal sales and marketing group dedicated to serving the home market and introduced a product line designed especially for individual users.[20]
From 1997 to 2004, Dell enjoyed steady growth and it gained market share from competitors even during industry slumps. During the same period, rival PC vendors such as Compaq, Gateway, IBM, Packard Bell, and AST Research struggled and eventually left the market or were bought out.[21] Dell surpassed Compaq to become the largest PC manufacturer in 1999. Operating costs made up only 10 percent of Dell's $35 billion in revenue in 2002, compared with 21 percent of revenue at Hewlett-Packard, 25 percent at Gateway, and 46 percent at Cisco.[22] In 2002, when Compaq merged with Hewlett Packard (the fourth-place PC maker), the newly combined Hewlett Packard took the top spot but struggled and Dell soon regained its lead. Dell grew the fastest in the early 2000s.[3]
Dell attained and maintained the top rating in PC reliability and customer service/technical support, according to Consumer Reports, year after year, during the mid-to-late 90's through 2001 right before Windows XP was released.
In 1996, Dell began selling computers through its website.
In the mid-1990s, Dell expanded beyond desktop computers and laptops by selling servers, starting with low-end servers. The major three providers of servers at the time were IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Compaq, many of which were based on proprietary technology, such as IBM's Power4 microprocessors or various proprietary versions of the Unix operating system. Dell's new PowerEdge servers did not require a major investment in proprietary technologies, as they ran Microsoft Windows NT on Intel chips, and could be built cheaper than its competitors.[23] Consequently, Dell's enterprise revenues, almost nonexistent in 1994, accounted for 13 percent of the company's total intake by 1998. Three years later, Dell passed Compaq as the top provider of Intel-based servers, with 31 percent of the market. Dell's first acquisition occurred in 1999 with the purchase of ConvergeNet Technologies for $332 million, after Dell had failed to develop an enterprise storage system in-house; ConvergeNet's elegant but complex technology did not fit in with Dell's commodity-producer business model, forcing Dell to write down the entire value of the acquisition.[22]
In 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Chairman and CEO Michael Dell had repeatedly blocked President and COO Kevin Rollins's attempt to lessen the company's heavy dependency on PCs, which Rollins wanted to fix by acquiring EMC Corporation.[24]
In 2003, the company was rebranded as simply "Dell Inc." to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers.[25]
In 2004, Michael Dell resigned as CEO while retaining the position of Chairman,[26] handing the CEO title to Kevin Rollins, who had been President and COO since 2001. Despite no longer holding the CEO title, Dell essentially acted as a de facto co-CEO with Rollins.[24]
Under Rollins, Dell acquired Alienware, a manufacturer of high-end PCs targeted mainly towards the gaming market.
 | |
Dell Headquarters in Round Rock, Texas
| |
| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Computer hardware Computer software |
| Founded | February 1, 1984 |
| Founder | Michael Dell |
| Headquarters |
,
U.S.
|
Area served
| Worldwide |
Key people
| Michael Dell (Chairman & CEO) Jeff Clarke (Vice-Chairman, Products & Operations) Karen Quintos (CCO) |
| Products |
|
| Revenue |  US$78.7 billion (2018)[2] |
Number of employees
| 145,000 (2018)[2] |
| Parent | Dell Technologies |
| Subsidiaries | Alienware, Dell Boomi, Dell Force10 |
| Website | www.dell.com |
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