On October 6, 1997, in response to the question of what he’d do if he was in charge of Apple Computer, Dell founder and then 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 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, $72,132,428,843 vs. $71,970,702,760 at market close respectively.
Today, in intraday NASDAQ trading, Apple’s market value passed 2 times that of Dell’s, $127.81 billion vs. $63.65 billion.
Got any snappy retorts for that one, Mr. Dell?
AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ are here.
Got any snappy retorts for that one, Mr. Dell?
He does, but Outlook and IE7 keep crashing and his computer is overheating.
talk about something coming back to bite you in the ass!
and an appropriate mw:remember
God I love it, now if we could take down M$.
Where is MSOffice killer?
Yeah, we’re only half the company now that you are.
Buy a Dell, burn in Hell!
Don’t worry about taking down Microsoft, they will do it all by them selves.
Google is putting the finishing touches on it as we speak.
This is even better, than MDN’s link
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=DELL++AAPL&hl=en
What’s worse for Dell is that not only have Apple increased dramatically but they (Dell) have dropped. In addition, what have they got lined up to help them? Cheaper models, cost cuts and sacking people. That’s all Dell have. Apple have new iPods, new Macs, iPhone, Apple TV, Leopard plus anything new they may have up their sleeves. Dell are fscked.
Thelonious is rocking back and forth gently in a hammock waiting for his Edge connected iphone to finish displaying the the Dell story on MDN. Hmm is it Edge or MDN or both that’s so slow. He sips is chilled beer, hears birds cawing in the distance and finally the page displays.
“Hmmm” he thinks. “Not good for any company to gain market value so fast or for any company to lose market value so fast.”
As he reads, delighted in turning his iPhone vertical then horizontal then vertical again… a shadowy figure with an MDN T-Shrt slips up, swaps his beer for some other drink.
Thelonious sips the “kool-aid” and suddenly he thinks, “Ah ha ha ha! Dumb ass Michael Dell. What have you got to say now ya bozo! Maybe you should give all the money back to the shareholders and buy Mac for them all as well! Lord I wouldn’t want to be you right now! CAUSE I’D HAVE TO USE DELL COMPUTERS! AH ha ha ha ha…”
Who’s there? Micheal.
Micheal who? Dell.
Who? Micheal Dell.
What? Micheal, Micheal Dell.
Who? Dell, Dell computers.
Go away, I need to poop!
Sad for Dell employees. Better look for a new job, at least a job that has some hope for a future.
When Dell will end up like Compaq only the remaining Dell employees will truly notice. The brighter ones are already leaving the company.
In the late 90s my Apple sales rep left to rep for Dell. He is still with Dell (I see him at the trade shows), but I wonder how he feels now. Regrets? I hope so! Maybe he can be saved from the dark side. On second thought, who cares.
Why would anybody buy a Dell??? For what? I just don’t get it.
Karma’s a b*tch!
WOW What a payback!
I’m loving life and when I look over at the Palmer project as we call it in austin. I get all misty eye to think this asshole is losing money fast and the justice department haven’t even finish with his ass. OH
OH OH LIFE IS GOOD
Aug 01, 1997 – July 27, 2007
DELL +178.47%
AAPL +3520.88%
Whatever happened to the “Dude, get a Dell” guy? Did they have to sell him to make ends meet? He’s probably turning tricks in the parking lot so that Dell can pay the electric bill.
Well, that’s the bad news (for Dell). The good news? Apple is expanding its facility in Austin, Texas. Here’s my suggestion to Dell employees nearby concerned about their jobs: Buy a Mac. Get some experience with *real* personal computing while you update your resume. And hope Apple finds you worthy of consideration.
“Whatever happened to the “Dude, get a Dell” guy?”
Ballmer ate him. It was like eating a Twinkie stuffed with ganja.
Updated Dell quotes:
“Shut it down and give even more money back to the shareholders.”
or
“Please, please shut it down. My company is sinking fast.”
Oh, man, Dell’s not even worth shutting down now.
Twisted Mac Freak…
That is hilarious!
“Whatever happened to the “Dude, get a Dell” guy?”
Ballmer ate him. It was like eating a Twinkie stuffed with ganja.
Do not worry about microsoft, we have two people in there to boycot microsoft… they code names are “Steve Balmer” and “Bill Gates”, they are in charge of bringing down microsoft. and they are doing a wonderfull job taking down microsoft.
MSOffice killer = OpenOffice
Michael Dell should shut down his company and give the money back to the shareholders.
AAPL vs. DELL stock price last 5 years
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=DELL&t=5y&l=off&z=m&q=l&c=aapl
“And then one day you find ten years have got behind you”
Pink Floyd – Time
in all honesty Dell ainʻt going anywhere for awhile. but based on their US sales… and now theyʻre selling at Walmart not to mention trying to sell “Premium” Laptops… Letʻs not just post here… letʻs short their stock… or buy stock option puts… we should make money out of Dell losing money…
Aug 02, 2002 to July 27, 2007
DELL +23.01%
AAPL +1934.17%
Michael Dell better shut down NOW and give money back to shareholders before there’s no money left to give back. Dell is a company without a plan and without a future.
Got any snappy retorts for that one, Mr. Dell?
He does, but at the moment he’s offline, writing linux drivers.
Karma’s a bitch, it works both ways so don’t tempt Applelytes!
And before you come back to me, what I mean is that even though it may not come back to Apple because after all Mr. Jobs is not making capital on that issue, it could come to you in your personal life.
Treat Karma with care.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050118-4535.html
Mr. X
Can you read? It’s only a matter of time. Have you seen their fruity colored laptops? lol
MD Word “Old”
Although I generally agree that it is humorous that Dell is where they are now, I do have to commend them for one thing that they have been doing recently – shipping Linux on some of their computers. They are actually in the process of breaking the shackles that Microsoft has on them. This will be a good thing for the entire market since computer buyers will have a choice. This will force document interoperability between all OSes and Microsoft will lose all control of the market that they have previously had. I’m all for Apple, but I also want to have multiple OSes available from non-MS places.
For the time being, the financial competition with Dell is done – stick a fork in them, they’re done. Let’s focus on higher things and the real competition, as opposed to the financial status of a nondescript manufacturer of ‘grey’ little boxes that have been built to the standards of the lowest common denominator.
The first thing to do is to pull away and make the superior valuation over both HP & Verizon stick for good. May take another quarter, but – by the middle of October – the change should be dialled in pending whatever changes the gods have in store.
The next mainstream target is Intel itself: if Apple were operating in a vacuum and INTC stayed in a narrow range, the target is around $160.00 – just over $16.00 away. A disappointing back-to-school season for the Windell marketplace (predicated on the lacklustre appeal of Vista), whilst iPods and iPhones (which aren’t ‘Powered By Intel’) continue to power ahead will make Intel a memory in the rear-view mirror.
If only Jack Miller was still around to give his take on this. I miss AtAT. But the family is a good reason to leave off.
Dell? Whar was that? Amiga?
What does a Delldo that a Gateway cun’t?
.uck itself in the ass?
Many corporations have had their ups. IBM, Dell, Gen. Motors, ITT, Ford, the list is endless. Remember that pride comes before the fall.
I worked for Dell for all of two weeks before they debuted the crap fiesta that they have unleashed in all the colors of the rainbow.
Behold! Vista comes in 8 shades of suck!
(Then they opened and Apple store and I quit. Guess where I work now?)
Funny but let’s just see what happens in a few years after the hype dies down to see if Apple has what it takes to hold on to it’s current height.
Last time I checked apples market cap it was indeed worth doube the one of dell!
Learn the lesson of the stock exchange and peoples expectations.
ha ha
“I have nothing more to say”
Last I checked, Dell is still doing 3x Apple’s revenues. That’s what counts.
i’m affraid apple takes all it’s hype from steve jobs and the day he will die, apple will be in freefall.
just look how fast it went down for a rumor last time!
Xofia,
It’s the profit that matters, not the revenues. That’s why the Xbox is a failure.
-jcr
Seriously though guys…Apple has succeeded on image alone. While OS X is ok, their hardware is CRAP. I’ve only bought one so far, but I paid double what I would’ve paid for a dell (i’m an idiot) and I’ve had many, many problems from it. Looking at the various forums, I’m far from alone.
Apple has done a great job with iTunes and the online stone, but their PC solution is just awful. Give me a Dell with Ubuntu anyday over an apple!
chlon said:
“i’m affraid apple takes all it’s hype from steve jobs and the day he will die, apple will be in freefall.”
I’ll bet you’re a riot at parties.
apple’s main source of income isn’t their computers at all, its all those ipoo’s and iphones etc. Both of which i’d never buy again. Anyway, I’m with you on the ubuntu dell thing!
Dell makes the worst and cheapest laptops on the planet. THeir customer service (based in india) IS HELL ON EARTH. NEVER BUY A DELL. Buy a Apple MacBook Pro Instead…Blackbrutha has spoken
One friend of mine thanked me yesterday and offered me quite many drinks last evening. Sometime ago I advised him to invest money to AAPL. He invested 10 000€ and the price was down somewhere around $80. I have long time advised people to buy AAPL because I seriously think that Apples market value will be way over 300 000 000 000 and pass Microsoft. If you do not own AAPL yet do the right thing and make your investment now. I bought mine before the split when it was down around $13-$14. I still invest as much that I can.
Michael Dell should have invested the money he has to AAPL instead of investing it back to Dell. Can´t help him. Let´s help ourself´s instead.
Could this be the reason he’s embracing Ubuntu Linux?
This is a gross misrepresentation, though a popular one, of what Michael Dell said. Michael Dell, when prodded by the interviewer, said that Apple was not the kind of business that he was interested in, that he had no interest whatsoever in running Apple, and that HE would shut the company down rather than attempt to turn it around. A perfectly appropriate answer coming from him and not an insult to Apple in any way.
Dell’s current misfortune has come after Michael Dell’s retirement as CEO and he is not directly responsible for it either.
No one here is in any way responsible for either Apple’s or Dell’s successes and failures. Mac fanatics are pathetic.
DUDE YOUR GETTING A MAC!!!
M$ is in free-fall, in its way down to ground. Everyone who build businesses around it, will fail. Linux is the only alternative to Mac OSX and is the only product that is competing with OSX. Windows is copying.
One that is always making fun of Apple is the pathethic clown Ballmer. Recently he laughed at iPhone, stating that nobody would never buy a 600 buck phone… 700,000 copies after, I think he is not laughing anymore…
Well, if Apple had not borrowed the code from the gnu Darwin project to become an *niX operating system and not entered the mp3 device arena they is a chance that they would not exist today.
that reminds me – i’m all out of twinkies and ganja
Good thing I saved Apple so you could all make these pompous comments.
If I hadn’t, Dell would have been right.
Can you say Job’s fanboys? Dell makes their money in the corporate segment on pc’s, laptops and above all, servers. Apple makes their money on, well, Ipod and now Iphone. Comparing revenue as a basis of determining market dominance is pointless. Give me the numbers on how many Dell laptops were sold last year compared to Macbooks. nuff said.
John Wells, did you buy a macbook expecting it to be a game machine?
I have not had any problems with my MBP other than the battery exchange. I’ve take it to Cancun, Paris, Barcelona, London, Frankfurt and Helsinki without having any issues.
Um…samuel?
Apple didn’t “borrow” ‘gnu’ Darwin. Darwin is Apple’s *nix variant from NeXT…fix-a-fied.
You Mac fans obviously know nothing about finance and even less about business. Apple makes their money on Ipods, not computers. Ipods and, well that’s basically it. Dell sells more computers than Apple ever will. Without mp3 players they have nothing.
Michael Dell should get more credit for being able to predict the future. He knew that Apple would eventually trounce his company, so he wanted it dismantled before it could begin building the momentum to do so …
Big o’l load of B:
Get a clue. Apple booked a $1 billion more revenue with their computers than with their iPods this quarter. Though Apple never reveals their margins on specific products, it’s clear from their gross margin figure for the quarter that a large chunk of their quarterly profit came from their computer business.
Read the financial report:
http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/fetchFilingFrameset.aspx?dcn=0001104659-07-056111&Type=HTML
So, you were saying?
Buy some aapl shares and you will make money. It is going to hit $200 very soon.
Wow. Does anybody here have a degree in finance? Someone (including the writer of this article) should learn the difference between market capitalization and value; everyone here keeps calling the market cap the value and they are not the same. Market cap is just the number of shares times their price, but if the company were to be sold, that’s far less than they would fetch. The idea is to capture the price of a company’s future cash flows; so start looking at the balance sheets and income statements and forget about the cap! Now, I am not sure, but by glancing at their balance sheets, it looks like Dell is about 30% larger and would fetch the higher price.
@John: Apple’s net income is what you want to look at; that is their profit after taxes and other expenses. Did anyone here look that up? If we look at the year ending 2006, Apple had a NI of 1.989 bil while Dell’s was 2.614 bil; not even close. Go ahead and compare ytd as well; just watch out because the companies don’t report at the same time.
What a bunch of mactarded dreamers?!
Apple is built on hype, not quality as they use the SAME electronic parts as other makers. Ok the casing is nicer or shinier, miminilistic.
The iphone is a flop and will continue to be
Apple TV is a flop and will continue to be
The Apple OS is NICE but still a closed OS with little collaboration with software makers and other hardware developers.
The Apple NOS is a failure and continues to be.
The ipod is a success…
That said, it is not enough to overtake anyone.
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Ubuntu is more likely to overtake apple in about 4-5 years easy.
And guess who is selling it on their desktops? DELL!
Man, you Apple peeps are hateful flamers. Grow-up. Also, take into account that Dell is ONE of many PC companies, so Apple’s worth has surpassed Dell, and not by much, there is still Gateway, HP, etc… Oh, and I think the Dell employee’s will maintain their jobs.
Also, you do realize Apple is another MS up and coming, you think they are going to care about you IF they ever get anywhere the market share MS has… NO, they are just another corporation. Plus, once it becomes more feasible, hackers will start breaking Mac’s left and right, and if they want to appeal to REAL users, they will support third-party hardware so you can build your own Apple, with scalability comes more opportunities for bugs and crashs.
Y’all need to understand things and quit being such sheep, none of the big computer corps want to make us happy, they want the market share. As long as we have the option to build our own machines and customize it on our own, as long as we can keep our freedom intact, we can avoid having a computer industry like the Government.
Build your own machines? You aren’t building squat, you are only plugging parts together. And the best OS you can run is Ubuntu. What a joke.
I do like the way the PC Zealots (the true believers!) have started using ‘Mactard’. One thing never changes, PeeCee folks copy Mac folks. Wintard has a much better (and original) ring to it.
Sheep are the mactards that live inside their fishbowl and dont look at anything outside it.
“PeeCee folks copy Mac folks” – Like looking glass from Sun or other unix interfaces? Oh and how about that new TIME MACHINE lol. Hell OSX isnt even really by Apple , its ADAPTED by Apple because its basically BSD. Remember that the OLD MacCrap product was trashed in 2000.
And its kinda funny knowing that Apple had to ride on top of BSD just to survive and now you try to bash Linux?
I was just making the point that Ubuntu is growing at a faster rate and you mactards go off!
Sorry that facts bother you guys! lol
And for some more bothersomew news:
Market cap is just the number of shares times their price, but if the company were to be sold, that’s far less than they would fetch. The idea is to capture the price of a company’s future cash flows; so start looking at the balance sheets and income statements and forget about the cap! Now, I am not sure, but by glancing at their balance sheets, it looks like Dell is about 30% larger and would fetch the higher price. As long as we are comparing numbers: Apple’s net income is what you want to look at; that is their profit after taxes and other expenses. Did anyone here look that up? If we look at the year ending 2006, Apple had a NI of 1.989 bil while Dell’s was 2.614 bil; not even close. Go ahead and compare ytd as well; just watch out because the companies don’t report at the same time.
But then ACTUAL facts and comparisons are too much for most mactards.
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I love this gem:
http://aarone.org/2007/05/29/michael-dell-in-2001/
Next: Wow lots of windows and/or linux fan girls just crawled out from under some rocks around here… Did it rain or something? Oh no its them crying over Vista or better yet the oft heard remark that “Linux is going to take over the world”.
I’d love to see that. I run Yellow Dog linux. I like the idea and the dream of linux; doesn’t blind me to the fact that linux (any distro) is still not ready for the desktop to any large degree. There is no way coroporate America is going to ditch MS for linux on the desktop soon. People oft cry about teh lack of “professional” software for business on teh Mac (whatever teh hell that means…Ahhh how much is ported to linux?
Servers? Most definitely, desktop still don’t see it happening, at least anytime soon.
Bottom line is this, linux users and Apple users have the same goal, to be free of the shackles of Microsoft. So maybe we should look at it this way” The enemy of my enemy is my friend”…
Lastly (from Jabber_wolf)
“But then ACTUAL facts and comparisons are too much for most mactards.”
You mean like PC apologists burrying their head in the sand and refusing to see Dell’s freefall? No can’t be bothered by facts can ya…
et al: Windows fanboys… got to love them they make life entertaining.
Karma must hurt for Mr.Dell and all of his employees, I cant wait to see Dell get shut down, I mean come on, why the hell are they selling cheap laptops, or should i say desktops with a laptop name! Hey Mr. Dell why dont you just give all the money back to your shareholders, and let apple dominate the computer world!!
P.S. I wrote this on a windows machine, if only apple’s were a little less, or if i only had more!
Apple is my favorite brand, whenever i need any electronics or computer related items I always prefer Apple items at my favorite shopping site CouponAlbum(http://www.couponalbum.com) as so many coupons are available here.!!