“A Microsoft Corp. investment in Dell Inc. — should the reported talks come to fruition — could help Microsoft sell into the all-important business market more effectively,” Steve Rosenbush writes for The Wall Street Journal.
“Dell, which has been linked to talks with private equity firm Silver Lake Partners to take the computer and technology services company private, may have a new stakeholder in Microsoft, which may invest $1 billion to $3 billion in a leveraged buyout that would give it access to Dell’s expertise in areas in which Microsoft is interested in penetrating, while Dell could benefit from Microsoft’s unremitting focus on corporate customers,” Rosenbush writes. “Microsoft has made it clear that it wants to push deeper into the hardware business, and has launched the Surface family of tablets under its own brand. The company is selling them through its own stores, as well. Both moves are reminiscent of Apple Inc.’s strategy of creating its own line of carefully designed, premium products and selling them through its own retail channel.”
MacDailyNews Take: Reminiscent except for the part where they’re total flops.
Rosenbush writes, “From the corporate customer’s point of view, Microsoft’s participation could lend some stability to a Dell buyout as well, he said. And from Dell’s point of view, Microsoft could help the company achieve what it needs more than anything: sharp business focus, which he characterized as an area of Microsoft strength.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like a match made in hell, otherwise known as perfect strategery for Ballmer T. Clown.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Rainy Day” for the heads up.]
Do it! Do it!
Wow. I would have thought spending that on actually fixing the products they already have would be a good idea. On second thoughts…
Well, they’ve never done that. Why start now?
Hmm, MicroDell? DellSoft? Lol😉
DelliSoft – gotta get into that iStuff
DeliSoft n’ Crash?
OMG, that would really piss off their other hardware “partners”. But I say they should go right ahead. This will force HP to finally get out of the PC market, as we know it, and send the Asian PC brands right into their well deserved demise. And why just a $3B investment, they should buy the whole thing. By the way, what expertise does Dell have anymore?
I disagree. HP and Asian PC makers will get behind Linux and succeed, while Dell and MS market share will drop like Digital, Apollo and DataGeneral did. But I do agree, they should go right ahead.
This wouldn’t do a lot for Microsoft’s relationship with other hardware vendors. If this happens, Dell will probably end up as the only sizeable outlet for Windows PCs.
This ‘idea’ has the potential to cause big problems with Enterprises customers, especially the shops that already have bought in to the Dell/Microsoft Combo. This would encourage M$ to force Windows 8 on clients that had no intention of upgrading from Windows 7.
The Enterprise market has always been infatuated with the notion that the Wintel platform is open, in that they can buy hardware from any vendor. (They conveniently ignore the closed software component, wedded to MS.)
Should MS get bound up with Dell, AND the other Wintel manufacturers pursue other OS options, that may cause problems for the Dell/MS operation concerening their best customers.
Misery loves its company?
What happened to Ballmer’s mantra of we work with thousands of vendors? I guess that went down the drain along with PlaysForSure.
I guess Ballmer now will chant “Developer” rather than “Developers, Developers, Developers”.
I like this strategy. I like it a lot.
More big ass tables and poo colored music players please.
Microsoft + Dell = the Frankenstein version of Apple. Microsoft will do a stunningly inept job, as usual, of managing both the hardware and the software in the Windows universe—just like Apple, except not. 😀
Does anyone have an app that would take Ballmer’s mug and morph it into Mikey’s mug? It would be really fun to see a balding Dell and a cross-eyed Ballmer, both with that Neanderthal brow ridge. Those tiny slits of mouths would probably have the least amount of change.
If this happened I’d probably pee my pants in excitement 😀
Like that would ever happen… What part of enterprise computing is not already dominated by MSFT? That’s not a bad thing. MSFT specializes in the enterprise. So, buying a failing hardware company does what exactly? Get some of the Dell Mojo?
Microsoft could do this without buying Dell. It’s not like Dell is the home of revolutionary hardware advances.
A mawwidge made in heaven.
Showing your age Arnold.
The Classics are ageless.
We all know what happens when one drunk tries to hold up another.
Nah, antitrust concerns would kill this; same reason they’ve never made a Microsoft branded PC themselves.
Buying 12% of the PC manufacturing market will not be an antitrust violation.
It will, however, drain Microsoft’s income exponentially. That will be a good thing.
Take a look at what the resale market shows:
Windows & is selling for a higher price than Windows Weight. Look at the user feedback on Amazon and other places where it is not subject to fanboi curation.
Apple should launch a trade in program for owners of Windows XP/Vista and 7 who upgrade to a Macintosh. It would add sales and buzz.
Could MDN post that how-much-more-worth Apple is now compared to Dell..haven’t seen that for a while 😉
As of the 23 january 2013 close, AAPl was 21.09 times DELL.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=aapl+vs+dell+market+cap
One word: Shitastic!
But…
Then we wouldn’t be able to compare Dell’s market cap against Apple’s anymore 🙂
WRT the headline: “buyout” is a noun, as in “the buyout.” The proper expression is “buy out,” as in “I’m going to buy you out.”
Funny, Ballmer is part of the ownership group that was announced to be buying the Sacramento Kings and moving them to Seattle. Then his team, the Supersonics can play against Paul Allen’s team, the 3rd Microsoft co-founder, the Portland Trailblazers.
Now, if Microsoft buys less than 20% of Dell, they could use their foreign cash holdings, which means they save close to 35%, since they’d not have to pay US corporate tax for repatriating that money.
Microsoft needs to fix Windows 8 before they even think about buying Dell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E41oRh0qJ7s
Actually last year I expressed my thoughts that MS should buy the computer business of HP, I also believe that buying Dell would also position MS to move into designing and building their own line of high end computers for the enterprise , gaming and consumer, this combined with a sleek version of windows ( minus the bloat for 3rd party builders) would enable MS to go head to head with Apple.
I also suggested that MS buy RadioShack as a distribution chanell and slowly remove the smaller stores as they go forward
Heat do you all think ?
Regarding that “line of carefully designed, premium products” out of Microsoft, anyone have any idea what those might be?
This was inevitable …. It just doesn’t Fucking Matter Any Way. It’s all just a shit anal ist sandwich. Neither Hay nor Hair can iFix The System.hey Mickey can I get your phone number sexy cross eyeed Bbach?