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 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.
On July 27, 2007, Apple’s value doubled that of Dell’s, $127.81 billion vs. $63.65 billion, respectively.
On December 6, 2007, Apple’s market value passed 3 times that of Dell’s, $165.66 billion vs. $54.42 billion, respectively.
On May 1, 2008, Apple rose $6.05, or 3.48%, to close at $180.00 and the company’s market value passed 4 times that of Dell’s, $158.66 billion vs. $38.97 billion.
Even after the recent market meltdown, and factoring in the $12.12 that Apple gained in after-hours trading today following stellar results, Apple is still worth nearly 4 times that of Dell, $91.79 billion vs. $24.66 billion, respectively.
Not only that, but today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed that Apple currently has $25 billion in the bank and is a debt-free company.
In other words, Apple could basically buy Dell outright and, oh, what the heck, shut it down and keep the money since they’d be the only shareholders. (Of course, that’d be the kind of horribly-conceived deal only Steve Ballmer would pursue.)
Got any snappy retorts now, Mr. Dell?
AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ are here.
What else would $25 or so billion buy?
• Research in Motion – $28.57 billion
• Sony (includes Sony Music Entertainment) – $25.43 billlion
• Amazon – $21.39 billion
• Activision Blizzard – $17.13 billion
• Yahoo – $16.73 billion*
• Adobe – $14.65 billion
• Motorola – $12.87 billion
• Electronic Arts – $8.98 billion
• Autodesk – $5.48 billion**
• EMI Group (includes EMI Music) – $3.67 billion
• SanDisk – $3.32 billion
• Warner Music Group – $720.67 million***
• RealNetworks – $600.47 million****
• Palm – $463.20 million
• Napster – $126.46 million
*But, that just might kill Ballmer; better to leave him right where he is for as long as it takes.
**Can you say “AutoCAD for Mac OS X at half the price of the Windows version along with the announcement that Windows support would be phased out over a two-year period combined with the offer to double the number of licenses at no extra cost by migrating to Mac OS X?” We knew you could.
***Eliminate the Middlebronfman, indeed.
****Hey, don’t laugh, that’s still a lot of doughnuts!
“Apple could basically buy Dell outright and, oh, what the heck, shut it down and keep the money since they’d be the only shareholders.”
Ummm, that doesn’t make sense.
Bosco,
Which is probably why MDN wrote, “Of course, that’d be the kind of horribly-conceived deal only Steve Ballmer would pursue.”
@doc e,
That’s an excellent point. I hadn’t thought of Blizzard’s online gaming infrastructure as the major asset, but it is as you say the best in the business. Apple could buy Blizzard, spin the development division off again, keep the online infrastructure, tweak it in-house, and offer it to everyone.
As you say, it would be very appealing to development houses not to have to develop and maintain all that back end themselves.
Come on,
Dell, as a sub-prime computer manufacturer deserves Govt protection. All in favor say “I’m… a socialist”
If Apple bought Autocad how many copies would they have to sell to get their monies worth and at how much. Not worth the effort!
@MikeH,
Ah, but how many Mac Pros and Cinema Displays would they sell to engineering and architectural firms?
If only Jack Miller was still around to crow about this in As the Aplle Turns. Please come back to us Jack!
@Steve…(if you really are him)…Please buy Adobe.
Pretty strong? Its probably pretty close to 9 out of 10 systems you will find in most data centers are Dell PowerEdge servers. Where Dell sucks on the comsumer PC side they really have great stuff on the server side and it shows in corporate and internet data centers.
The autocad / engineering play would mesh nicely with the niche OSX has in science.
@MikeH,
The real value is the recurring licensing fee every year. Can you say “ORACLE”? They will give it away to get that yearly maintenance fee. Once trapped, it’s hard to extract yourself.
Blizzard already offers all it’s top products for Windows and Macs on the same optical media, at the same time, at the same quality. You want to buy it to make use of its server farms?
Electronic Arts has a large and varied portfolio of less stellar game franchises that frequently are NOT offered on the Mac. Or, if they are, are not offered on the same media, or at the same time, if even by them. Apple has the server farms! Buy EA and upgrade their better products to more resemble the Blizzard offerings – expand the Sims franchise into something more like 2nd Life, for example. Mercenaries as a full-fledged multi-theater war game.
AutoCAD? Oh yeaahhh! That would be sweet!
Dell? Don’t DO it. PLEASE!
I would buy Bose…what a perceived quality name brand…and keep the name.
I would turn iTunes into an independent record company for discovery of fresh, new, undiscovered musical talent and eat the lunch of the record companies who have controlled the musical world and robbed all the artists.
I would invest in even more efficient quality customer service and add 6 months to each one year warranty for each product.
I would add iSight Zoom to the Apple TV with PIP type videoconferencing/voip calls.
I would offer a discount on Apple Store merchandise with purchase of any laptop.
I would put the iSight into the iPod touch with iChat voip to stimulate Touch sales when they level off, then later the iPhone.
I would eventually build up to 500 Apple stores in quality areas.
I would work hard on bluetooth headphones and an iSight video watch/pod.
I would improve the speaker volume on Macbooks
BTW: if you DO buy AutoCAD, none of this favored-marketing *stuff*. Yes, get the latest version out for Macs. FIRST. Yes, lower the price on seat licenses – and use the model seen with OSX Server (Family Packs hardly make sense, do they?) But keep the Windows side “available”, and reasonably priced. Maybe, MAYBE, allow purchasers to switch Windows -> Mac for free, seat for seat.
My opinion.
I think it would be hilarious. Apple could start selling low end consumer machines under the Dell name, but still run OS X. The Dell brand name would be good for getting the average consumer who doesn’t really know any better.
SONY SONY SONY.
That’s the best buy out there. You buy SONY, you get a decent foothold in Electronics, gain excellent library of movies and music, gain a movie studio, eliminate one hostile music cartel (3 to go), gain instant access to Japan as well as Asia, Europe, Africa wherever in the world there’s a SONY logo, with that acquire a brand name, Camera Camera Camera (I know it’s part of electronics but Cameras, especially video HD is in Apple’s direct future iCrossSight, remember the Pioneer HD camera mentioned by Jobs earlier), and yeah – Games games games on the PS3 revolution – in one move gone will be the ‘bag full of hurt’ to gain up on another market against M$ indeed. PSP extends out the iPhone platform and oh, the SONY bookreader whatever it’s called – pitting against the pathetic Kindle.
Yeah, I know, first Jobs will do is consolidate SONY into focussed target products and not a maker of everything from Toasters to Satellite grade lights.
Buying SONY makes so much more sense also, you take out special pricing from Amazon, lala etc. Integrate AppleTV with Bravia and I am sure there are plenty of other benefits I’m missing right now.
I’m just hoping that SONY doesn’t have any outrageous debts on their hand right now.
Meanwhile, with the rest, Adobe’s a bloatware. EA already supports Mac, why stifle innovation when the R&D;isn’t costing you anything and you benefit without acquiring. I’d buy Yahoo though, just to get into the Social thing and it’s a good company. Keep Google on it’s toes, you tread in my territory I’ll tread in yours and no one is safe when Apple innovates.
Finally, AutoCad. Haven’t used it in over a decade. It was already a bloatware and was losing businesses to other competing products. Not sure about Architecture, but in Aerospace we use a lot Dassault System’s CATIA and mostly SolidWorks. There are a few other options, but Aerospace Industries have moved on from AutoCad in droves a long time ago. I’m sure that’s also true for most other Mechanical Engineering firms. But hey, if you want to buy AutoCad for all the architects, go ahead.
And buying BOSE will gain another niche product and will sink the company faster in this economy. BOSE follows Apple, Apple doesn’t need BOSE.
Meanwhile, I think Apple-Sony marriage will be better than AOL-TW. Not sure about Yahoo, but I like that Young. We grew up together on the net.
Apple should buy or invent a way for iPod Touch users to have WiFi access Nationwide. Or some form of cellular net access. IPod T sales would explode.
Why buy old and tired companies? The money should be use for buying and financing the next big thing or things. It has been by staying quick on their feet that Apple has survived and gone on to prosper since it’s near death at the hands of a stifling corporate culture. Why would they go back to that? It is likely would happen if they bought another large company.
I think AAPL should wait a few years and buy California. then they could show America and the rest of the world how they could run the country. And they could. Why? Because, unlike every politician in the world, Apple Execs have learned to look the future while travelling through the present.
And America desperately needs good Governance.
Buy Adobe. Would love to see Adobe’s overpriced, bloated products streamlined the Apple way.
Autodesk also produces Maya and 3Dx Max which are two extremely powerful 3D graphics and animation programs. To see those on a Mac would just make me die happy and go to heaven. Imagine the possibilities of those programs on a Mac. Apple could integrate OpenGL (and OpenCL in Snow Leopard) as well as Core Image and Core Animation, streamlining the complex and steep learning curve associated with Maya & 3Dx.
That my Mac friends would allow more games to be developed just for the Mac and have to be emulated for the PC, instead of the other way around. Say goodbye to DirectX (thank god) in gaming. OpenGL is way more accessible nowadays and it’s open source, so developers can alter it to suit the needs of the application using it. (For more on OpenGL and Direct3D, visit the wikipedia on it.)
It would drastically change the face of the industry in many ways that we could probably never know until it happens.
Apple buys Dell. Keeps their product line, for now. Include OSX on every machine, and keep paying the Microsoft Tax to include Windows as well (but every machine boots OSX out of the box). BootCamp will allow users to choose what system they want to run for the day. Eventually you know what will happen. Gradually over time the product line shifts towards genuine Macs, and Windows is phased out. Within 5 years all Dell production is done solely at Apple (i.e. Apple’s China factories), and then the Dell name is put to rest once all the crappy machines are no more.
How about that scenario?
@Wingsy
Apple would never put Mac OS X on a Dell box. Even if they own Dell. It goes against their own EULA and would set precedence for other companies to argue in court about how they want to run OS X on their machines as well. I bet Apple would lose that case. And only because they put OS X on a Dell.
Now if Apple bought Dell and shut it down. It would mean that Microsoft has lost one of their most important partners.
Dell may be doing shite but they can ship it. Tons of it. Can HP or any of the other companies more than double their output over night?
Think how many ‘doze licences would have to be put on hold!
Now if Apple made a Mac just for business [cubicle jockeys, secretaries and number crunchers etc.] that had OS X on it but was missing FireWire (don’t start!) and any other fancy bits and bobs a cubicle jockey didn’t need. A box that was only sold very reasonably in bulk for example. Designed to be cheap for the enterprise. One that did exactly what you just mentioned. But looked elegant compared to windoze boxes.
Then released this new enterprise Mac and marketed it to these corporations just before Apple killed off Dell. Now that would have impact and would launch Apple into the enterprise quicker than you can say Mikey sucks ass!”.
How’s that for a scenario dudes?
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Apple should take care of the coming OEM crisis before it hits. Lenovo might not make the sexiest machines in the world, but they, a Chinese company no less, sees the the benefits of near-shoring. Lenovo, who makes its own computers, is cutting back on its Chinese manufacturing and has built plants in Poland and Mexico recently. Why? Rising wages in China and the reality that high oil prices will come back in a relatively short time. It is likely that margins could be heavily affected if Apple doesn’t diversify its processes.
You kidding? Wasting $ on Dell?! In fact, Apple has enough cash to buy up BOTH Ford and GM and still have enough scratch to snatch up Adobe. Touch screen moonroof on your new Apple Corvette Explorer Hybrid running Photoshop anyone?
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