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: On May 21, 2010, 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.
• 9X: On June 1, 2010, Apple gained $6.89 to $263.77 to hit a market value of $240.01 billion or more than 9 times that of Dell’s current $26.29 billion.
• 10X: On September 9, 2010, Apple gained $1.60 to $265.37 to hit a market value of $242.43 billion or more than 10 times that of Dell’s current $24.21 billion.
• 11X: On September 23, 2010, Apple rose $3.79, or 1.32% to $291.54 to hit a market value of $266.34 billion or more than 11 times that of Dell’s current $23.81 billion.
• 12X: On January 27, 2011, Apple rose $0.26, or 0.08% to $344.11 to hit a market value of $317.02 billion or more than 12 times that of Dell’s current $26.02 billion.
• 13X: Today, Apple rose $9.86, or 2.64% to $383.58 to hit a market value of $355.61 billion or more than 13 times that of Dell’s current $27.29 billion.
Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash and short-term investments on-hand ($76 billion) than Dell Inc. is worth (singificantly more than double, in fact).
In fact, Apple is now the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company (something Dell has never achieved and never will).
Hello, Mikey? Miiiiikeeeeey? Got any snappy retorts today?
See AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ here.
I wonder what Mikey thinks every time he sees stories like this.
He’s too busy worrying about where he put his Retin-A
He thinks: “Who is the ugly, beady-eyed fscker in that picture? Oh, wait ….”
a real fortune teller that Michael Dell
As we say in Greece, you can get a big bite but you should avoid big words…
Shut Dell down. Return the money to the investors.
No no, shut down Dell and invest in AAPL.
This never gets old. Many thanks for reposting, MDN. We’ll have a party when it’s 20X.
B-Y-O-B!!! YEAH!!!
I love that picture of Dell: it looks like he just walked in on his wife buying an iMac from Steve Jobs! 😀
ROTFLMAO !!!!
We get it, we get it! Michael Dell was an idiot and was proven so YEARS ago. But posting every time Apple reaches one of these milestones against Dell is so old. It’s no longer sporting. So, let’s save this for special occasions, like 15x and 20x and 25x. Those are going to come soon enough, trust me. Let’s focus on bigger targets like Microsoft and Google and Exxon. Comparisons to them say more about Apple’s success than comparisons to Dell.
Are you kidding me?
I want to be reminded, EACH AND EVERY TIME.
@EricW: Abrey beat me to it, but I’ll say it anyway: I disagree. It simply never gets old.
As bad as that Dell quote is, how about the Bill Gates one?
The one where he said upon Steve’s return, why is Steve coming back, he knows he’s lost the PC wars? In fact, it’s taken 15 years, but I think we’ll come to see this week as the week the PC wars were won by Apple.
Just look at what’s happened. HP is throwing in the towel. They’re #1 in sales. #2 Dell is weak, as we know. #3 Acer lost money last quarter, as its netbook business implodes. #4 Lenovo made $100M, which is 1/74th the profit that Apple makes, and Apple sold more stuff in China than Lenovo does. The Post-PC market is dominated by Apple, where up to 95% of tablets in use are iPads. The PC war is over, Apple won. Steve knows this and retired. The rest of the world will know it in 5 years or so.
RIGHT ON!!!!!
From where I sit, the Windows world looks like the Soviet Union. It’s not that Apple’s beating them so much as MIcrosoft has been bleeding the hardware vendors dry.
When the volume leader in that game doesn’t want to play anymore, there’s something much bigger afoot than having lost 10% of desktop computer share to Apple.
-jcr
I don’t believe I ever seen it said better or more succinctly.
Not only is the PC war over, it’s moot. The new race is content delivery, and Apple is the only tech company with a car on the track.
darn KenC, can I qoute you!
Right on!!!!!
Man, his depth perception must suck. He’s almost like Plankton.
actually look at few days ago. It was more than 13 time before as well. I thought you are fed up with this article as it was and it will keep going like 10, 11, 12 and so on time. By end of next year it will be more than 20 to 25 times and 2 to 3 times MSFT!!!
Love it. I never get tired of seeing this.
While ‘revenge is a dish best served cold,’ hubris is painful, too.
And in other news, Apple is now worth twice as much as Google!! Hmmm, I wonder why nobody saw THAT coming.
@MDN: Your link to the Steve Job’s response is not working. I always wonder where to find it. Can you correct it? I will appreciate that.
OTOH: This will never ever gets old. It is a reminder that one person’s determination and self knowledge can be that strong.
Actually – Dell was prescient!
He would have given Apple back to the shareholders because he did not want to be outdone and made a fool!
😛
Michael Dell build a highly successful company and a great personal fortune. So let’s give him credit for that. But having given him his due, Dell is a “one trick pony” – make generic PCs at the lowest possible price (thus returning ever slimmer profits)! So if you carefully deconstruct his infamous quote you will understand that he WAS actually correct and prescient after all!
Here is the quote – clarified:
“What would I [Michael Dell] do [if I were CEO of Apple instead of Steve Jobs]? I’d [have no other option but to] shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders [because I don’t have Steve’s talent, imagination and design esthetic and the ‘Dell solution’ would sink the company].”
If Michael HAD been head of Apple, it could not have possibly succeeded, as Dell’s business model would have been a death sentence!
Fortunately, Steve Jobs remained CEO of Apple and the rest is history!
Lesson?: Think different!
Today, Apple rose $11.13 to $411.63 to hit a market value of $381.62 billion or more than 1 times that of Dell’s current $27.13 billion.
Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash and short-term investments on-hand (In my opinion in excess of $80 billion now 20 Sep 11) than Dell Inc. is worth (singificantly more than double, in fact).
Sorry it’s not 1 but should be 14. 4 was missing
Apple is a portable music and phone company!
Their computer sales figures SUCK!
Mac OS X is showing a “laughable” 7.3% market share to Window’s 82.6!
So, the iPod and iPhone are successful, I’ll grant you all that. But, when it comes to computers, they are still sucking wind! Big time!
Troll.