On October 6, 1997, in response to the question of what he’d do if he was in charge of Apple, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell stood before a crowd of several thousand IT executives and answered flippantly, “What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”
A little more than a month later, on November 10, 1997, new Apple Interim CEO (iCEO) Steve Jobs responded, speaking in front of an image of Michael Dell’s bulls-eye covered face, “We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.”
On January 13, 2006, after a little more than eight years of hard work, Apple Inc. passed Dell, Inc. in market value, $72.13 billion vs. $71.97 billion at market close, respectively.
• 2X: On July 27, 2007, Apple’s value doubled that of Dell’s, $127.81 billion vs. $63.65 billion, respectively.
• 3X:On December 6, 2007, Apple’s market value passed 3 times that of Dell’s, $165.66 billion vs. $54.42 billion, respectively.
• 4X:On May 01, 2008, Apple’s market value quadrupled that of Dell’s, $158.66 billion vs. $38.97 billion, respectively.
• 5X:On February 12, 2009, Apple rose $2.60 to hit a market value of $88.37 billion or 5 times that of Dell’s $17.52 billion.
• 6X:On October 20, 2009, Apple rose $11.21 to $201.07 to hit a market value of $180.12 billion or more than 6 times that of Dell’s $29.97 billion.
• 7X:On January 26, 2010, Apple gained $7.57 to $210.64 to hit a market value of $189.72 billion or more than 7 times that of Dell’s current $27.03 billion.
• 8X:In NASDAQ trading today, Apple gained $1.95 to $239.74 to hit a market value of $218.12 billion or more than 8 times that of Dell’s current $25.84 billion.
Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash and short-term investments on-hand ($41.7 billion) than Dell Inc. is worth.
Got any snappy retorts now, Mr. Dell?
See AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “SamLowry” for the heads up.]
Kind of looks like the whole top part of his head is pinched in. Good ol’ “Sad Sack” Michael!
@ iQuack
“With M$ 7ista installed, Dell both sucks and blows at the same time :D”
I lost my milk on that one. Thanks!
You need to understand what market cap is before you make more foolish statements…. and it’s debt just to let you know.
tick tick microsoft now around 15 Billion and closing.
I no longer care about Dell – both the company and the founder have long since ceased to be relevant to Apple and its future.
The relationship to MSFT is far more interesting at this time: as I write this, the swing percentage is around 3.23%; which, at the end of Friday, meant that Apple has to put on around $8.09 per share to increase i’s value by US$7.36 billion whilst MSFT, by losing 84 cents, would lose $7.36 billion from its market cap.
To be honest, all that takes is a couple of settled days on the market next week.
@ Big Al
“at the time, who knew that Microsoft would self destruct the way it did?”
I for one bet they would eventually fall behind Apple. Started buying AAPL1997 through 2002. Bought a lot. I considered shorting msft and dell but figured the decline would be too slow.
@ Big Al
“at the time, who knew that Microsoft would self destruct the way it did?”
Pretty much everyone here.
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Had a problem with a Dell projector yesterday. Called Dell tech support. Guy had heavy accent and we spent a good deal of time asking each other to repeat what we were saying. Got transferred. Was told it was the wrong department. Gave me new number for projector help. Called that number and got a recording that they were closed for the day – it was about noon. Logged onto their live chat. While waiting, message said their policy was that they owned the problem until it was solved. Tech support guy came on line. Tech support guy said they could not help me because there was no such model number in their records. Asked for supervisor and he apologized and said my problem was not with projector and said I needed to call laptop manufacturer. I told him the problem I was having was when the projector was not connected to the laptop. He said he had done all he could. Called original tech support number back, got a different guy with even worse accent and was told they could not help me because I did not have the correct zip code for where the projector was registered. Asked for supervisor and he answered my question. I’ve left some things out like being put on hold while going to check with different projector tech specialists, hearing some clicks after about 10 minutes on hold, then a dial tone. Total time consumed: 3 hours, 18 minutes. Typical Dell service.
Oh, forgot – somewhere in that 3 hour marathon, asked one of the tech guys if I could speak to Michael. He was not amused.
Apple launches every time new and amazing product, and i liked the all product of apple. so thanks for sharing a nice info.
http://www.wellnessstarts.com/ultra-cleanse-pro-reviews.html
maybe apple should buy dell
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Just joking, but that would surely have an impact on the industry.
And it would surely complete the “going after” Dell.
This plus the embarrassing Mini 5 1990s phone is really making Dell look beleaguered.
@Dell Sucks,
Here’s an example of good service. My iPhone died. Apple’s website had some suggestions that didn’t work. So I set up an appt with at the Apple Store for the next day. Got there at 2PM. The place was buzzing (Santa Clara Ca store). Saw tech rep after 5 mins. Took him 2 mins to decide that the phone was hosed. 10 mins later got me a new fully setup phone. Probably took 20 minutes in a store with about 200 customers.
Why does Dell frighten you AppleFreaks so much?
My father in law had both a Dell desktop & laptop. I’ve been forced to work with them in the past couple of months since his death, and every day I come home and snuggle my Macs firmly to my chest. Those things are POS, and it’s more than just WinXP. I practically broke my wrist hoisting the laptop…the thing is that big and ugly, and compared to my black MacBook, well there’s no comparison.
My mother in law wants her own laptop…I’ll probably have to get her a Windows machine since that’s what she’s used to, though I’ll try to talk her into a MacBook (doesn’t really need Pro, but needs more than iPad). But I can assure you that Dell isn’t even on my list of laptops to evaluate.
Dell smells…
His eyes are unusually, really close together. He’s all cheeks and ears. Michael Dell, alien CEO.
Never assume that it could not swing the other way some day again. Apple can rise to the top like Dell and Microsoft and crash and burn. Bill Gates always worried about this, and so should Apple. Its just like football, when you get over confident is when you start to lose.
Steve Jobs said….on Google:
‘We did not enter the search business. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them.
Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there’s no getting Jobs off this rant.
‘I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing. This don’t be evil mantra: It’s bullshit.’
Audience roar
imo: Apple will enter Search, soon.
@zara
“Why does Dell frighten you AppleFreaks so much?”
lol – this is quite possibly the single stupidest comment I’ve seen all day! Thanks for a good laugh.
Oh, Zara. Zara. You haven’t been paying very close attention, have you? We’re not SCARED of Dell, we’re LAUGHING at him. Go back and reread. I can’t imagine how you missed that, you silly!
Why does Apple frighten you AppleHaters so much?
It’s coincidental that you chose the handle ‘zara’. The Mac community have been waiting for Xara ‘Extreme’ for about ten years. But, like Corel, Xara Group are a bunch of lazy-ass WinDevs that think they can just walk in and supplant lazy-ass Adobe. Sorry boys, Lazyass Adobe got here first.
Mike Dell was smart. He is also a billionaire. Any billionaires here?
And he didn’t steal a liver earmarked for a little kid.
FYI: The little kid is dead now.
The little kid should have been inventing cool, useful gadgets rather than binge-drinking liquor & mainlining heroin.