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.
• 2X: On July 27, 2007, Apple’s value doubled that of Dell’s, $127.81 billion vs. $63.65 billion, respectively.
• 3X: On December 6, 2007, Apple’s market value passed 3 times that of Dell’s, $165.66 billion vs. $54.42 billion, respectively.
• 4X: On May 01, 2008, Apple’s market value quadrupled that of Dell’s, $158.66 billion vs. $38.97 billion, respectively.
• 5X: 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.
• 6X: On October 20, 2009, 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 $29.97 billion.
• 7X: On January 26, 2010, Apple gained $7.57 to $210.64 to hit a market value of $189.72 billion or more than 7 times that of Dell’s current $27.03 billion.
• 8X: On May 21, 2010, Apple gained $1.95 to $239.74 to hit a market value of $218.12 billion or more than 8 times that of Dell’s current $25.84 billion.
• 9X: On June 1, 2010, Apple gained $6.89 to $263.77 to hit a market value of $240.01 billion or more than 9 times that of Dell’s current $26.29 billion.
• 10X: On September 9, 2010, Apple gained $1.60 to $265.37 to hit a market value of $242.43 billion or more than 10 times that of Dell’s current $24.21 billion.
• 11X: On September 23, 2010, Apple rose $3.79, or 1.32%, to $291.54 to hit a market value of $266.34 billion or more than 11 times that of Dell’s current $23.81 billion.
• 12X: On January 27, 2011, Apple rose $0.26, or 0.08%, to $344.11 to hit a market value of $317.02 billion or more than 12 times that of Dell’s current $26.02 billion.
• 13X: On August 26, 2011, Apple rose $9.86, or 2.64%, to $383.58 to hit a market value of $355.61 billion or more than 13 times that of Dell’s current $27.29 billion.
• 14X: Today, Apple rose $1.82, or 0.44%, to 413.45 to hit a market value of $383.31 billion or more than 14 times that of Dell’s current $27.15 billion.
Apple is also a debt-free company and currently has significantly more cash and short-term investments on-hand ($76 billion) than Dell Inc. is worth (as of today, likely three times as much ($81.45 billion), in fact).
In fact, Apple is now the world’s most valuable publicly-traded company (something Dell has never achieved and never will).
Hello, Mikey? Miiiiikeeeeey? Got any snappy retorts today?
See AAPL and DELL quotes via NASDAQ here.
And it never gets old. Looking forward to when it next hits 15x.
Wow! It could happen again this year.
Definitely too early to call it the “post-pc” era…
How about the post-Dell era?
his only hope is to get microsoft and ibm to merge with his company and keep the name dell.
Theoretically, Apple could merge with all of PC businesses in the world and its shareholders would have like 2/3 ownership of the joined company.
Practically it is impossible due to anti-monopoly laws, but the thought give a hint on Apple’s scale.
M Dell merely go lucky being in the right place at the right time, but then failed to see what would be needed to go to the next level.
Steve Jobs knew what the next 5 levels of performance for consumers would require.
ha! what a coincidence! Michael Dells’ eyes are 14% closer than they were when he made that dumb-ass remark about Master Steve Jobs and his now ultra superior stock shares!
Man, I tells ya…da woild is a strange place
Hahahahaha…. what an a-hole… Love the picture.
Ah, Mikey Dell. He of the Porcine Eyes.
I never get tired of hearing about each multiple of Dell’s worth that Apple is worth.
Michael Dell thinks a lot of himself, for a guy who’s product is crappy, piece-of-shit Windows boxes. Even my Windows friends can’t stand Dell.
This horse is so dead you’re just beating dirt. At this point, Michael Dell is so insignificant, he and his idiotic quote should never be mentioned again
The only reason it’s mentioned is because it’s FUN gloating over his failure.
And because he has not yet paid enough to compensate for the IT jibes, bullying, condescension, and sabotage suffered by many of us over the years. By my calculations it’s at least 17 times market value before we can let it alone. Scapegoat? Yes, but very deserving.
I love seeing this everytime… Oh when will the world understand haha =P
And the multiple will likely approach infinity as Apple continues to bloom (boom) and Dell continues to whither.
Is that an unmodified photo of Dell? Is he really a pin-head?
Gee, I wonder if ol’ Mikey has any regrets……..
With all his money, I wonder why Michael Dell never considered acquiring a pair of lips. In the meantime, my less than three year old DULL PERSPIRON is still gathering dust, deader than Lindsay Lohan’s showbiz career after its obviously cheap hard drive gave up. Such a hard life it had; with all the net-surfing & basic word processing. In the meantime, my well-travelled iBook G4 continues to be a decent performer.
It’s clear to everyone that Michael Dell was wrong in saying that Apple should return all of its money to shareholders.
So why do we give credence to those who say today that Apple should return money to shareholders by paying a big dividend?
We all owe Dell and Gates a big thanks for making comments that incited Steve Jobs and Apple. I imagine Dell’s comment and Gates “He cannot win” were quoted endlessly at Apple over the years. Katherine Hepburn once said never underestimate the motivational power of proving the … wrong. And only boobs spike the ball BEFORE scoring the winning touchdown.
Dell?
Oh, wait, didn’t they make really ugly computers sometime in the last century?
If only Michael had shut Dell down in 1997 and invested all of that money into AAPL. The shareholders would have fared much better, I suspect.
Looking forward to the 100x milestone! Perhaps MDN could a organize a countdown contest a la the iTunes sales milestones!
Yet, Mikey continues to use his stern “I AM A CEO” face to appear as if he’s got a chess strategy that can’t help but be a winner…………….