Hum reports, “At the time, the outlook for the company was far from encouraging. In fact, shortly after Jobs assumed his duties as interim CEO, rival Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computer, was asked at an IT conference what he would do to fix Apple Computer. Dell’s response: ‘What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.'”
Hum reports, “How the times have changed…”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, such a sweet mixture of redemption and schadenfreude.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Investor” for the heads up.]
Mickey needs to take his own advise.
I guess Mikey is finding out that what goes around, comes around.
schadenfreude my hind leg, I’d just say, yappari ne…
Revenge is a dish best served cold…
If I was Steve, I’d just say…”MIke Dell? Who is Mike Dell?”
Actually I think Jobs is doing the best thing by not even saying anything. Take the high road and just let your work do the talking for you. Jobs has done a great job with the companies he’s started and of all people I think he knows that today’s result don’t necessarily mean success in the future.
Great job Apple and I hope this is just the start of more good things to come.
Imagine if you invested in Apple at $3/share and held it today (including all the splits). Oh the $$$$$$$$$$$
I really, really dislike CNBC, however I would’ve liked to have seen this piece.
Oh yes indeed, how times have changed!
“I wish,” the $3/share price is already split adjusted. It’s still a pretty good return over ten years. The share price has doubled almost 6 times in that time frame!
@Dude: Da Plane! Da Plane! Er, I mean Kahn! Kahn! Kahn!
Lowest price per share was $13 if I recall correctly.
Fun story. Pity it isn’t true.
The Michael Dell quote comes from a Fortune article in 1996, I believe. The quote was not made when Steve Jobs was at Apple. In the same article, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, “I’d milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth while looking for ‘the next big thing.'”
Peter? you might need to check your facts
How credible is an article that says:
“Apple’s stock has defied all expectations, approaching all-time high levels once again, largely on the success of its iconic line of iPod music players.”
Apple’s iPod business is certainly solid, but AAPL’s rise this year is “largely” due to the success of iPhones and Macs, not iPods. But I suppose such reporting only matches the typical investor’s knowledge of Apple. So barring any general economic crisis (like last year), AAPL must still have some good near-term upside potential, as more and more investors “discover” it.
Buster – you will never be close to anything like Steve Jobs
Best find a new fantasy
In the comment section of the full article:
Apple has taken no effective measures to prepare to compete for pc market share against today’s release of Microsoft’s Windows 7, which should boost Dell among others. Today may be the high water mark of Apple’s recent success unless they take positive measures to compete, such as better pricing or packaging their OS for other makers’ hardware. If you’ve had a good run on Apple stock today would be a good day to take your profit, because in a month the story is going to look very different for them…
Really, like wow, I had no idea
@Peter: You are incorrect.
http://news.cnet.com/Dell-Apple-should-close-shop/2100-1001_3-203937.html
lowest I got the stock was 22 but it split so it was actually at 11, I don’t ever remember it at 3 bucks… he’s crazy
Need to put that cross eyed, shrunken cranium image up there MDN. hehe
I think Jobs is doing the best thing by not even saying anything.
He said something when AAPL passed up DELL’s market cap a couple of years ago, but he said it in an internal e-mail to Apple employees.
It was rather classy, actually:
Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn’t perfect at predicting the future. Based on today’s stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.”
(found that in the WSJ)
-jcr
I purchased 10 shares at just under $10. It has split twice and my $100 investment is worth more than $7000 today. I wish I had mortgaged the house.
Maybe Microsoft will give Dell $150 million to bail them out.