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.
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 01, 2008, Apple’s market value quadrupled that of Dell’s, $158.66 billion vs. $38.97 billion, respectively.
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.
Today in NASDAQ trading, 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 current $29.97 billion.
Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash on-hand, $34 billion, than Dell Inc. is worth.
Got any snappy retorts now, Mr. Dell?
AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ are here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Congrats to the entire team at Apple for remarkable results for the quarter ! Apple is a remarkable company with remarkable people that have the spirit of innovation. I can’t wait to see the future products that come from this innovative company. Dell has nothing going on, nothing at all.
Mikey would say,
“Steve, buddy, use some of that chump change from the sofa in your office and buy my company, please. Have I got a deal for you.”
@seanenergy
Here is what I say to people who tell me Macs are too expensive. It’s good advice and really easy to do. If you can’t afford it now, start saving some money for it. Whew that was hard. LOL
I believe it’s even better than that. Note that the financial report now lists 914 million shares outstanding (employee awards?) so that would make the market value $183 billion and change.
I’m sure its one of those rounding errors ::)
the people who usually say that Macs are too expensive are the same ones who buy a new PC every other year because their “old” one craps out on them. I’ve had two Macs that have done the job for me in 11 years.
You do get what you pay for.
Kevin-
So very very true. In all seriousness, I don’t know what I was smoking that kept me from switching to Mac. I am no computer guru, but Macs make everything seamless.
PCs should be treated like Meth. All they do is piss you off. I am sure there are office administrators everywhere that are so annoyed with their PC, they go home at night and potentially reinact Miss Bobbitt.
Billy should be arrested for possession with intent to distribute a castration machine.
Interesting. I looked in my dictionary under “wanton hubris” and it said:
hubris, wanton |'(h)yoo̅bris, ‘wäntn|
noun phrase
• See Dell, Michael
• See also Ballmer, Steve
seanenergy, those batteries sound interesting. Are you going to be selling any to Apple?
That would be ideal Road Warrior. I guess we’ll see, on January 7 at CES.
I will tell you who I won’t sell to… mikey. I actually had a pretty nasty argument with those morons this morning. They (his employees) seem to get offended when you refer to Michael Dell as Mikey. [which is exactly what I did] They think he is Jesus, or something. Yeah,, he is the Jesus peddling a fourth-rate operating system on a substandard motherboard.
I remember January 13th 2006 and MDN’s article.
Geez, that Dell quote was almost 12 years ago now. Talk about about beating a dead horse! Go on with your life now. Don’t be stuck in 1997.
Oh, come now… nothing wrong with a little celebration. To say, ‘Go on with your life…’ is like telling everyone who celebrates Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day… “Move on! That stuff happened so long ago” I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t around for Jesus’s birth, execution, nor when he sailed to America, nor when he fought along side General Washington. But, I will still throw a few back and enjoy the celebration. Here you have something you know to be a reality. We know Michael Dell is real, we know what he said. We have seen the times change. Let’s all throw a few back and pee on a Dell… Michael, or one of his machines.
YES! Let’s turn this into a holiday like the likes of Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day! The day when Apple vanquished Dell! Oh wait, Dell still has higher market share than Mac (13.2 vs. 8.9%). Yes, Mr. Dell said something stupid 12 years ago, but Dell still beats Apple in units shipped. Let’s put off the celebrations until at least when that situation is reversed.
WOW!!! Thanks, Mikey Jr.
Like the 85 year old invalid in a rest home who never aspired for anything great in his life. Well, that man has delivered more crap to sewer, than I probably ever will. I guess his market share, with regard to crap, is higher than mine. Probably twice as much. But, I am still living better than he ever did, inspite of his grand market share of the sewer.