Should Apple buy beleaguered Dell?

“Almost everyone knows that Apple is sitting on a huge pile of cash, around $24.5 billion. That might be enough to fill one of Scrooge McDuck’s cash vaults, but there have to be some other interesting things to do with that much money,” Frank Fox writes for Low End Mac.

“While feeling depressed about how low the value of Apple stock has fallen recently (below $90 per share), I checked out some other companies that are falling due to the same economic worries. There I saw the perfect company that is finally cheap enough that Apple can buy the whole thing: Dell,” Fox writes. “That’s right, Dell has a market capitalization of only $18.55 billion. Apple can buy it and still have money left over.”

MacDailyNews Take: You could’ve just read MacDailyNews last month: Apple could buy Dell outright; Mac-maker has more cash on hand than Dell is worth – October 21, 2008

Fox continues, explaining that Apple should buy Dell for “total shock value,” for help getting a foot in the door in enterprise, and for a brand that Apple “could use for selling low spec PC with Mac OS X installed without diluting its own brand value.”

Full article here.

74 Comments

  1. OK, we all agree. This idea is idiotic.

    Now what do I think Apple WILL spend a bunch of reserved cash on in the coming year?

    Overturning Prop 8.

    They threw 100k at it last time trying to stick their nose into something they had no business being involved in, and it wasn’t enough. This time, Steve will write checks for millions to prove there is no separation between business and state.

    You watch. It will happen.

  2. Who would trash away his/her money??

    And for “there have to be some other interesting things to do with that much money,”

    One is not writing about it; another one is not talking about it.

    Dear MDN, try not to bring to the fore that kind of crap items. Trash it away.

  3. I’m nuts but Apple buying GM could be a good thing for all of us. It’s going to take a company like Apple to produce interesting American cars for a change. Probably they’d be twice as fuel efficient and Apple already has experience in aluminum manufacturing. Flying cars, jetpacks, whatever.

  4. If Apple were to buy a company to get into Enterprise, gain a great patient collection, great engineers, server hardware, and software… including things like Java, ZFS, Solaris, and server hardware that makes Dell’s stuff look like crap…. they should buy Sun! Current Market Cap… $2.36B

  5. Dell got where they are by first innovating in custom building machines to order, and then they lost their lead by trying to save money on customer service and degrading their quality.

    It would be rather stupid for Apple, or any other company to buy a competitor just because they can. Dell has nothing to offer; their position in the market is eroding, and their products are utterly mediocre.

    -jcr

  6. Is everyone so dumb that they don’t remember Power Computing?

    What killed Power Computing wasn’t the quality of its systems, it was Steve Jobs’ decision to pull the plug on the MacOS licensing program. As it turned out, that was a good move for Apple, but I was sad to see a good company get left high-and-dry.

    Actually I think if you guys go digging around you’ll find that Power Computing isn’t dead, it’s just resting in the Patents and Trademarks department at Infinite Loop.

    Apple paid $100 million in AAPL stock to buy the company in September 1997.

    So, if SPJ wished it to be so, Apple could re-invent the cloning business with Power Computing as a “diffusion” or entry-level line, devoid of iLife and other bells & whistles and possibly even running Tiger, instead of Leopard (and eventually Leopard instead of Snow Leopard).

    Then all it would need would be a box assembler: even then, there are cheaper options than buying Dell. Use Lenovo ferchrissakes.

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