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 Dell is an American company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services, and is owned by its parent company of Dell Technologies. Founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest technology corporations in the world, employing more than 165,000 people in the United States (US) and around the world.

Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals, HDTVs, cameras, printers, and electronics built by other manufacturers. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce, particularly its direct-sales model and its "build-to-order" or "configure to order" approach to manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. Dell was a pure hardware vendor for much of its existence, but with the acquisition in 2009 of Perot Systems, Dell entered the market for IT services. The company has since made additional acquisitions in storage and networking systems, with the aim of expanding their portfolio from offering computers only to delivering complete solutions[buzzword] for enterprise customers.

Dell was listed at number 51 in the Fortune 500 list until 2014.[9] Its rank is 34th on the Fortune 500 currently.[10] It is the world's 3rd largest personal computer vendor by unit sales as of January 2021, following Lenovo and HP Inc. Dell is the largest shipper of PC monitors worldwide. Dell is the sixth-largest company in Texas by total revenue, according to Fortune magazine.[13] It is the second-largest non-oil company in Texas (behind AT&T) and the largest company in the Greater Austin area. After going private in 2013, the newly confidential nature of its financial information prevents the company from being ranked by Fortune. It was a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: DELL), as well as a component of the NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500, until it was taken private in a leveraged buyout which closed on October 30, 2013.

In 2015, Dell acquired the enterprise technology firm EMC Corporation; Following the completion of the purchase, Dell and EMC became divisions of Dell Technologies. Dell EMC as a part of Dell Technologies focus on data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, cloud computing and other related products and services.

History

Founding and startup

Michael Dell founded Dell Computer Corporation, doing business as PCs Limited, in 1984 while a student at the University of Texas at Austin. Operating from Michael Dell's off-campus dormitory room at Dobie Center,the startup aimed to sell IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components. Michael Dell started trading in the belief that by selling personal computer systems directly to customers, PCs Limited could better understand customers' needs and provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs. Michael Dell dropped out of college upon completion of his freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin in order to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting about $1,000 in expansion-capital from his family.As of April 2021, Michael Dell's net worth was estimated to be over $50 billion.

In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design — the "Turbo PC", sold for US$795 — containing an Intel 8088-compatible processor running at a speed of 8 MHz. PCs Limited advertised the systems in national computer magazines for sale directly to consumers, and custom assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options. This offered buyers prices lower than those of retail brands, but with greater convenience than assembling the components themselves. Although not the first company to use this business model, PCs Limited became one of the first to succeed with it. The company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading.

The company dropped the PC's Limited name in 1987 to become Dell Computer Corporation and began expanding globally. At the time, the reasoning was this new company name better reflected its presence in the business market, as well as resolved issues with the use of "Limited" in a company name in certain countries.[23] The company set up its first international operations in Britain; eleven more followed within the next four years. In June 1988, Dell Computer's market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3.5 million shares at $8.50 a share. In 1989, Dell Computer set up its first on-site service programs in order to compensate for the lack of local retailers prepared to act as service centers.

Growth in the 1990s and early 2000s

In 1990, Dell Computer tried selling its products indirectly through warehouse clubs and computer superstores, but met with little success, and the company re-focused on its more successful direct-to-consumer sales model. In 1992, Fortune included Dell Computer Corporation in its list of the world's 500 largest companies, making Michael Dell the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company at that time.

In 1993, to complement its own direct sales channel, Dell planned to sell PCs at big-box retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, which would have brought in an additional $125 million in annual revenue. Bain consultant Kevin Rollins persuaded Michael Dell to pull out of these deals, believing they would be money losers in the long run. Margins at retail were thin at best and Dell left the reseller channel in 1994. Rollins would soon join Dell full-time and eventually become the company president and CEO.

Essentially, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to the higher costs and lower profit margins in selling to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site took off in 1996 and 1997. While the industry's average selling price to individuals was going down, Dell's was going up, as second- and third-time computer buyers who wanted powerful computers with multiple features and did not need much technical support were choosing Dell. Dell found an opportunity among PC-savvy individuals who liked the convenience of buying direct, customizing their PC to their means, and having it delivered in days. In early 1997, Dell created an internal sales and marketing group dedicated to serving the home market and introduced a product line designed especially for individual users.

From 1997 to 2004, Dell steadily grew and it gained market share from competitors even during industry slumps. During the same period, rival PC vendors such as Compaq, Gateway, IBM, Packard Bell, and AST Research struggled and eventually left the market or were bought out.[27] Dell surpassed Compaq to become the largest PC manufacturer in 1999. Operating costs made up only 10 percent of Dell's $35 billion in revenue in 2002, compared with 21 percent of revenue at Hewlett-Packard, 25 percent at Gateway, and 46 percent at Cisco. In 2002, when Compaq merged with Hewlett-Packard (the fourth-place PC maker), the newly combined Hewlett-Packard took the top spot for a time but struggled and Dell soon regained its lead. Dell grew the fastest in the early 2000s.

In 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Chairman and CEO Michael Dell had repeatedly blocked President and COO Kevin Rollins' attempt to lessen the company's heavy dependency on PCs, which Rollins wanted to fix by acquiring EMC Corporation; a move that would eventually occur over 12 years later.

In 2003, at the annual company meeting, the stockholders approved changing the company name to "Dell Inc." to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers.

In 2004, the company announced that it would build a new assembly-plant near Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the city and county provided Dell with $37.2 million in incentive packages; the state provided approximately $250 million in incentives and tax breaks. In July, Michael Dell stepped aside as chief executive officer while retaining his position as chairman of the board. Kevin Rollins, who had held a number of executive posts at Dell, became the new CEO. Despite no longer holding the CEO title, Dell essentially acted as a de facto co-CEO with Rollins.

Under Rollins, Dell purchased the computer hardware manufacturer Alienware in 2006. Dell Inc.'s plan anticipated Alienware continuing to operate independently under its existing management. Alienware expected to benefit from Dell's efficient manufacturing system.

Disappointments

In 2005, while earnings and sales continued to rise, sales growth slowed considerably, and the company stock lost 25% of its value that year.[33] By June 2006, the stock traded around US$25 which was 40% down from July 2005—the high-water mark of the company in the post-dotcom era.

The slowing sales growth has been attributed to the maturing PC market, which constituted 66% of Dell's sales, and analysts suggested that Dell needed to make inroads into non-PC business segments such as storage, services, and servers. Dell's price advantage was tied to its ultra-lean manufacturing for desktop PCs,[36] but this became less important as savings became harder to find inside the company's supply chain, and as competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer made their PC manufacturing operations more efficient to match Dell, weakening Dell's traditional price differentiation. Throughout the entire PC industry, declines in prices along with commensurate increases in performance meant that Dell had fewer opportunities to upsell to their customers (a lucrative strategy of encouraging buyers to upgrade the processor or memory). As a result, the company was selling a greater proportion of inexpensive PCs than before, which eroded profit margins.[27] The laptop segment had become the fastest-growing of the PC market, but Dell produced low-cost notebooks in China like other PC manufacturers which eliminated Dell's manufacturing cost advantages, plus Dell's reliance on Internet sales meant that it missed out on growing notebook sales in big box stores.[3][34] CNET has suggested that Dell was getting trapped in the increasing commoditization of high volume low margin computers, which prevented it from offering more exciting devices that consumers demanded.

Despite plans of expanding into other global regions and product segments, Dell was heavily dependent on the US corporate PC market, as desktop PCs sold to both commercial and corporate customers accounted for 32 percent of its revenue, 85 percent of its revenue comes from businesses, and sixty-four percent of its revenue comes from North and South America, according to its 2006 third-quarter results. US shipments of desktop PCs were shrinking, and the corporate PC market, which purchases PCs in upgrade cycles, had largely decided to take a break from buying new systems. The last cycle started around 2002, three or so years after companies started buying PCs ahead of the perceived Y2K problems, and corporate clients were not expected to upgrade again until extensive testing of Microsoft's Windows Vista (expected in early 2007), putting the next upgrade cycle around 2008.[38][39] Heavily dependent on PCs, Dell had to slash prices to boost sales volumes, while demanding deep cuts from suppliers.

Dell had long stuck by its direct sales model. Consumers had become the main drivers of PC sales in recent years,[39] yet there had been a decline in consumers purchasing PCs through the Web or on the phone, as increasing numbers were visiting consumer electronics retail stores to try out the devices first. Dell's rivals in the PC industry, HP, Gateway and Acer, had a long retail presence and so were well poised to take advantage of the consumer shift.The lack of a retail presence stymied Dell's attempts to offer consumer electronics such as flat-panel TVs and MP3 players. Dell responded by experimenting with mall kiosks, plus quasi-retail stores in Texas and New York.

Dell had a reputation as a company that relied upon supply chain efficiencies to sell established technologies at low prices, instead of being an innovator.[ By the mid-2000s many analysts were looking to innovating companies as the next source of growth in the technology sector. Dell's low spending on R&D relative to its revenue (compared to IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Apple Inc.)—which worked well in the commoditized PC market—prevented it from making inroads into more lucrative segments, such as MP3 players and later mobile devices . Increasing spending on R&D would have cut into the operating margins that the company Dell had done well with a horizontal organization that focused on PCs when the computing industry moved to horizontal mix-and-match layers in the 1980s, but by the mid-2000s the industry shifted to vertically integrated stacks to deliver an end-to-end IT product, and Dell lagged far behind competitors like Hewlett Packard and Oracle.

Dell's reputation for poor customer service, since 2002, which was exacerbated as it moved call centers offshore and as its growth outstripped its technical support infrastructure, came under increasing scrutiny on the Web. The original Dell model was known for high customer satisfaction when PCs sold for thousands but by the 2000s, the company could not justify that level of service when computers in the same lineup sold for hundreds.[citation needed] Rollins responded by shifting Dick Hunter from the head of manufacturing to head of customer service. Hunter, who noted that Dell's DNA of cost-cutting "got in the way," aimed to reduce call transfer times and have call center representatives resolve inquiries in one call. By 2006, Dell had spent $100 million in just a few months to improve on this and rolled out DellConnect to answer customer inquiries more quickly. In July 2006, the company started its Direct2Dell blog, and then in February 2007, Michael Dell launched IdeaStorm.com, asking customers for advice including selling Linux computers and reducing the promotional "bloatware" on PCs. These initiatives did manage to cut the negative blog posts from 49% to 22%, as well as reduce the "Dell Hell" prominently on Internet search engines.

There was also criticism that Dell used faulty components for its PCs, particularly the 11.8 million OptiPlex desktop computers sold to businesses and governments from May 2003 to July 2005, that suffered from faulty capacitors. A battery recall in August 2006, as a result of a Dell laptop catching fire caused much negative attention for the company though, Sony was found later responsible for the manufacturing of the batteries, howeverchi for Sony Yoshikazu O said the problem concerned the combination of the battery with a charger, which is specific to Dell in this case.

2006 marked the first year that Dell's growth was slower than the PC industry as a whole. By the fourth quarter of 2006, Dell lost its title of the largest PC manufacturer to rival Hewlett Packard whose Personal Systems Group was invigorated thanks to a restructuring initiated by their CEO Mark Hurd.

SEC investigation

In August 2005, Dell became the subject of an informal investigation by the US SEC.In 2006, the company disclosed that the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York had subpoenaed documents related to the company's financial reporting dating back to 2002.[48 ] The company delayed filing financial reports for the third and fourth fiscal quarter of 2006, and several class-action lawsuits were filed.[49] Dell Inc's failure to file its quarterly earnings report could have subjected the company to de-listing from the NASDAQ,[50] but the exchange granted Dell a waiver, allowing the stock to trade normally. In August 2007, the Company announced that it would restate its earnings for fiscal years 2003 through 2006 and the first quarter of 2007 after an internal audit found that certain employees had changed corporate account balances to meet quarterly financial targets. In July 2010, the SEC announced charges against several senior Dell executives, including Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell, former CEO Kevin Rollins, and former CFO James Schneider, "with failing to disclose material information to investors and using fraudulent accounting to make it falsely appear that the company was consistently meeting Wall Street earnings targets and reducing its operating expenses." Dell, Inc. was fined $100 million, with Michael Dell personally fined $4 million.

Michael Dell resumes CEO role

After four out of five quarterly earnings reports were below expectations, Rollins resigned as president and CEO on January 31, 2007, and founder Michael Dell assumed the role of CEO again.

On March 1, 2007, the company issued a preliminary quarterly earnings report showing gross sales of $14.4 billion, down 5% year-over-year, and net income of $687 million (30 cents per share), down 33%. Net earnings would have declined even more if not for the effects of eliminated employee bonuses, which accounted for six cents per share. NASDAQ extended the company's deadline for filing financials to May 4.

Dell 2.0 and downsizing

Dell announced a change campaign called "Dell 2.0," reducing the number of employees and diversifying the company's products.[40][56] While chairman of the board after relinquishing his CEO position, Michael Dell still had significant input in the company during Rollins' years as CEO. With the return of Michael Dell as CEO, the company saw changes in operations, the exodus of many senior vice-presidents and new personnel brought in from outside the company. Michael Dell announced a number of initiatives and plans (part of the "Dell 2.0) " initiative) to improve the company's financial performance. These include elimination of 2006 bonuses for employees with some discretionary awards, reduction in the number of managers reporting directly to Michael Dell from 20 to 12, and reduction of "bureaucracy". Jim Schneider retired as CFO and was replaced by Donald Carty, as the company came under an SEC probe for its accounting practices.

On April 23, 2008, Dell announced the closure of one of its biggest Canadian call-centers in Kanata, Ontario, terminating approximately 1100 employees, with 500 of those redundancies effective on the spot, and with the official closure of the center scheduled for the summer. The call-center had opened in 2006 after the city of Ottawa won a bid to host it. Less than a year later, Dell planned to double its workforce to nearly 3,000 workers to add a new building. These plans were reversed, due to a high Canadian dollar that made the Ottawa staff relatively expensive, and also as part of Dell's turnaround, which involved moving these call-center jobs offshore to cut costs. [58] The company had also announced the shutdown of its Edmonton, Alberta, office, losing 900 jobs. In total, Dell announced the ending of about 8,800 jobs in 2007–2008 — 10% of its workforce.

By the late 2000s, Dell's "configure to order" approach of manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications from its US facilities was no longer as efficient or competitive with high-volume Asian contract manufacturers as PCs became powerful low-cost commodities. closed plants that produced desktop computers for the North American market, including the Mort Topfer Manufacturing Center in Austin, Texas (original location)and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999) in 2008 and early 2009, respectively. The desktop production plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, received US$280 million in incentives from the state and opened in 2005, but ceased operations in November 2010. Dell's contract with the state required them to repay the incentives for failing to meet the conditions , and they sold the North Carolina plant to Herbalife. Much work was transferred to manufacturers in Asia and Mexico, or some of Dell's own factories overseas.[60] On January 8, 2009, Dell announced the closure of its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland, with the loss of 1,900 jobs and the transfer of production to its plant in odź in Poland.

Attempts at diversification

The release of Apple's iPad tablet computer had a negative impact on Dell and other major PC vendors, as consumers switched away from desktop and laptop PCs. Dell's own mobility division has not managed success with developing smartphones or tablets, whether running Windows or Google Android. The Dell Streak was a failure commercially and critically due to its outdated OS, numerous bugs, and low resolution screen. InfoWorld suggested that Dell and other OEMs saw tablets as a short-term, low-investment opportunity running Google Android, an approach that neglected user interface and failed to gain long term market traction with consumers.[69][70] Dell has responded by pushing higher-end PCs, such as the XPS line of notebooks, which do not compete with the Apple iPad and Kindle Fire tablets. The growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers instead of PCs drove Dell's consumer segment to an operating loss in Q3 2012. In December 2012, Dell suffered its first decline in holiday sales in five years, despite the introduction of Windows 8.

In the shrinking PC industry, Dell continued to lose market share, as it dropped below Lenovo in 2011 to fall to number three in the world. Dell and fellow American contemporary Hewlett Packard came under pressure from Asian PC manufacturers Lenovo, Asus, and Acer, all of which had lower production costs and were willing to accept lower profit margins. In addition, while the Asian PC vendors had been improving their quality and design—for instance, Lenovo's ThinkPad series was winning corporate customers away from Dell's laptops—Dell's customer service and reputation had been slipping. Dell remained the second-most profitable PC vendor, as it took 13 percent of operating profits in the PC industry during Q4 2012, behind Apple's Mac that took 45 percent, seven percent at Hewlett Packard, six percent at Lenovo and Asus, and one percent for Acer.

Dell attempted to offset its declining PC business, which still accounted for half of its revenue and generates steady cash flow,[76] by expanding into the enterprise market with servers, networking, software, and services.It avoided many of the acquisition write- downs and management turnover that plagued its chief rival Hewlett Packard. Dell also managed some success in taking advantage of its high-touch direct sales heritage to establish close relationships and design solutions[buzzword] for clients. Despite spending $13 billion on acquisitions to diversify its portfolio beyond hardware,[8] the company was unable to convince the market that it could thrive or made the transformation in the post-PC world, as it suffered continued declines in revenue and share price. Dell's market share in the corporate segment was previously a "moat" against rivals but this has no longer been the case as sales and profits have fallen precipitously.

2013 buyout

After several weeks of rumors, which started around January 11, 2013, Dell announced on February 5, 2013, that it had struck a $24.4 billion leveraged buyout deal, that would have delisted its shares from the NASDAQ and Hong Kong Stock Exchange and taken it private.[84][85][86] Reuters reported that Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners, aided by a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, would acquire the public shares at $13.65 apiece. The $24.4 billion buyout was projected to be the largest leveraged buyout backed by private equity since the 2007 financial crisis. It is also the largest technology buyout ever, surpassing the 2006 buyout of Freescale Semiconductor for $17.5 billion.

The founder of Dell, Michael Dell, said of the February offer "I believe this transaction will open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our customers and team members".[89] Dell rival Lenovo responded to the buyout, saying, "the financial actions of some of our traditional competitors will not substantially change our outlook."

In March 2013, the Blackstone Group and Carl Icahn expressed interest in purchasing Dell.[90] In April 2013, Blackstone withdrew their offer, citing deteriorating business. Other private equity firms such as KKR & Co. and TPG Capital declined to submit alternative bids for Dell, citing the uncertain market for personal computers and competitive pressures, so the "wide-open bidding war" never materialized.[8] Analysts said that the biggest challenge facing Silver Lake would be to find an "exit strategy" to profit from its investment, which would be when the company would hold an IPO to go public again, and one warned "But even if you can get a $25bn enterprise value for Dell, it will take years to get out."

In May 2013, Dell joined his board in voting for his offer.[94] The following August he reached a deal with the special committee on the board for $13.88 (a raised price of $13.75 plus a special dividend of 13 cents per share), as well as a change to the voting rules.The $13.88 cash offer (plus a $.08 per share dividend for the third fiscal quarter) was accepted on September 12[96] and closed on October 30, 2013, ending Dell's 25-year run as a publicly-traded company.

After the buyout, the newly private Dell offered a Voluntary Separation Program that they expected to reduce their workforce by up to seven percent. The reception to the program so exceeded the expectations that Dell may be forced to hire new staff to make up for the losses.

Recent history

On November 19, 2015, Dell, alongside ARM Holdings, Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium, to promote interests and development in fog computing.

Acquisition of EMC

On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc. announced its intent to acquire EMC Corporation in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $67 billion, which has been considered the largest-ever acquisition in the technology sector.[99][100] As part of the acquisition, Dell would take over EMC's 81% stake in the cloud-computing and virtualization company VMWare. This would combine Dell's enterprise server, personal computer, and mobile businesses with EMC's enterprise storage business in a significant Vertical merger of IT giants. Dell would pay $24.05 per share of EMC, and $9.05 per share of tracking stock in VMware.

The announcement came two years after Dell Inc. returned to private ownership, claiming that it faced bleak prospects and would need several years out of the public eye to rebuild its business.[104] It's thought that the company's value has roughly doubled since then.[105] EMC was being pressured by Elliott Management, a hedge fund holding 2.2% of EMC's stock, to reorganize their unusual "Federation" structure, in which EMC's divisions were effectively being run as independent companies. Elliott argued[106] this structure deeply undervalued EMC's core "EMC II" data storage business, and that increasing competition between EMC II and VMware products was confusing the market and hindering both companies. The Wall Street Journal estimated that in 2014 Dell had revenue of $27.3 billion from personal computers and $8.9bn from servers, while EMC had $16.5bn from EMC II, $1bn from RSA Security, $6bn from VMware, and $230 million from Pivotal Software. EMC owns around 80 percent of the stock of VMware. The proposed acquisition will maintain VMware as a separate company, held via a new tracking stock, while the other parts of EMC will be rolled into Dell.[109] Once the acquisition closes Dell will again publish quarterly financial results, having ceased these on going private in 2013.

The combined business was expected to address the markets for scale-out architecture, converged infrastructure and private cloud computing, playing to the strengths of both EMC and Dell.Commentators have questioned the deal, with FBR Capital Markets saying that though it makes a "ton of sense" for Dell, it's a "nightmare scenario that would lack strategic synergies" for EMC. Fortune said there was a lot for Dell to like in EMC's portfolio, but "does it all add up enough to justify tens of billions of dollars for the entire package? Probably not."[113] The Register reported the view of William Blair & Company that the merger would "blow up the current IT chess board", forcing other IT infrastructure vendors to restructure to achieve scale and vertical integration.The value of VMware stock fell 10% after the announcement, valuing the deal at around $63–64bn rather than the $67bn originally reported.Key investors backing the deal besides Dell were Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Silver Lake Partners.

On September 7, 2016, Dell Inc. completed the merger with EMC Corp., which involved the issuance of $45.9 billion in debt and $4.4 billion common stock. At the time, some analysts claimed that Dell's acquisition of the former Iomega could harm the LenovoEMC partnership.

In July 2018, Dell announced intentions to become a publicly traded company again by paying $21.7 billion in both cash and stock to buy back shares from its stake in VMware, offering shareholders roughly 60 cents on the dollar as part of the deal.[120] [101] In November, Carl Icahn (9.3% owner of Dell) sued the company over plans to go public.[121] As a result of pressure from Icahn and other activist investors, Dell renegotiated the deal, ultimately offering shareholders about 80% of market value. As part of this deal, Dell once again became a public company, with the original Dell computer business and Dell EMC operating under the newly created parent, Dell Technologies.

Post-acquisition, Dell was re-organized with a new parent company, Dell Technologies; Dell's consumer and workstation businesses are internally referred to as the Dell Client Solutions Group, and is one of the company's three main business divisions alongside Dell EMC and VMware.

In January 2021, Dell reported $94 billion in sales and $13 billion operating cash flow during 2020.

Dell and AMD

When Dell acquired Alienware early in 2006, some Alienware systems had AMD chips. On August 17, 2006, a Dell press release[125] stated that starting in September, Dell Dimension desktop computers would have AMD processors and that later in the year Dell would release a two-socket, quad-processor server using AMD Opteron chips, moving away from Dell's tradition of only offering Intel processors in Dell PCs.

CNet's News.com on August 17, 2006, cited Dell's CEO Kevin Rollins as attributing the move to AMD processors to lower costs and to AMD technology.[126] AMD's senior VP in commercial business, Marty Seyer, stated: "Dell's wider embrace of AMD processor-based offerings is a win for Dell, for the industry and most importantly for Dell customers."

On October 23, 2006, Dell announced new AMD-based servers — the PowerEdge 6950 and the PowerEdge SC1435.

On November 1, 2006, Dell's website began offering notebooks based on AMD processors (the Inspiron 1501 with a 15.4-inch (390 mm) display) with the choice of a single-core MK-36 processor, dual-core Turion X2 chips or Mobile Sempron.

In 2017, Dell released the AlienWare 17. The model was primarily based on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 systems, making it perfect for gaming and graphic designing.

Dell and desktop Linux

In 1998, Ralph Nader asked Dell (and five other major OEMs) to offer alternate operating systems to Microsoft Windows, specifically including Linux, for which "there is clearly a growing interest"[129]Possibly coincidentally, Dell started offering Linux notebook systems that "cost no more than their Windows 98 counterparts" in 2000,[131] and soon expanded, with Dell becoming "the first major manufacturer to offer Linux across its full product line".[132] However, by early 2001 Dell had "disbanded its Linux business unit."

On February 26, 2007, Dell announced that it had commenced a program to sell and distribute a range of computers with pre-installed Linux distributions as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. Dell indicated that Novell's SUSE Linux would appear first. [However, the next day, Dell announced that its previous announcement related to certifying the hardware as ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux and that it (Dell) had no plans to sell systems pre- installed with Linux in the near future.[135] On March 28, 2007, Dell announced that it would begin shipping some desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed, although it did not specify which distribution of Linux or which hardware would lead. On April 18, a report appeared suggesting that Michael Dell used Ubuntu on one of his home systems.[137] On May 1, 2007, Dell announced it would ship the Ubuntu Linux distribution.[138] On May 24, 2007, Dell started selling models with Ubuntu Linux 7.04 pre-installed: a laptop, a budget computer, and a high-end PC.

On June 27, 2007, Dell announced on its Direct2Dell blog that it planned to offer more pre-loaded systems (the new Dell Inspiron desktops and laptops). After the IdeaStorm site supported extending the bundles beyond the US market, Dell later announced more international marketing. On August 7, 2007, Dell officially announced that it would offer a notebook and one desktop in the UK, France and Germany with Ubuntu "pre- installed". At LinuxWorld 2007 Dell announced plans to provide Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on selected models in China, "factory-installed". On November 30, 2007, Dell reported shipping 40,000 Ubuntu PCs.[142] On January 24, 2008, Dell in Germany, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom launched a second laptop, an XPS M1330 with Ubuntu 7.10, for 849 euro or GBP 599 upwards.[143] On February 18, 2008, Dell announced that the Inspiron 1525 would have Ubuntu as an optional operating system. On February 22, 2008, Dell announced plans to sell Ubuntu in Canada and in Latin America From September 16, 2008, Dell has shipped both Dell Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows XP Home versions of the Inspiron Mini 9 and the Inspiron Mini 12. As of November 2009 Dell shipped the Inspiron Mini laptops with Ubuntu version 8.04.

As of 2021, Dell continues to offer select laptops and workstations with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed, under the "Developer Edition" moniker.

Acquisitions

Further information: List of Dell ownership activities

List of companies acquired by Dell Inc.

Company acquired Date of acquisition Company notes References

Alienware 2006 Manufacturer of high-end PCs for gamers

EqualLogic January 28, 2008 Acquired to gain a foothold in the iSCSI storage market. Because Dell already had an efficient manufacturing process, integrating EqualLogic's products into the company drove manufacturing prices down

Perot Systems 2009 Perot Systems was a technology services and outsourcing company, mainly active in the health sector, founded by former presidential hopeful H. Ross Perot. The acquired business provided Dell with applications development, systems integration, and strategic consulting services through its operations in the US and 10 other countries. In addition, the acquisition of Perot brought a variety of business process outsourcing services, including claims processing and call center operations.

KACE Networks February 10, 2010 KACE Networks was a leader in systems management appliances.

Boomi November 2, 2010 Cloud integration leader

Compellent February 2011 The acquisition extended Dell's storage solution[buzzword] portfolio.

Force10 networks August 2011 By acquiring this company Dell now has the full Intellectual property for their networking portfolio, which was lacking on the Dell PowerConnect range as these products are powered by Broadcom or Marvell IM.

AppAssure Software February 24, 2012 Dell acquired the backup and disaster recovery software solution provider out of Reston, VA. AppAssure delivered 194 percent revenue growth in 2011 and over 3500% growth in the prior three years. AppAssure supported physical servers and VMware, Hyper-V and XenServer. The deal represents the first acquisition since Dell formed its software division under former CA CEO John Swainson. Dell added that it will keep AppAssure's 230 employees and invest in the company.

SonicWall May 9, 2012 A company with 130 patents, SonicWall develops security products, and is a network and data security provider.

Wyse April 2, 2012 A global market-leader for thin client systems.

Clarity Solutions April 3, 2012 Clarity, a company offering services for application (re)hosting, was formed in 1994 and has its headquarters in Chicago. At the time of the take-over approximately 70 people were working for the company.

Quest Software September 28, 2012

Gale Technologies November 16, 2012 A provider of infrastructure automation products. Gale Technologies was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

Credant Technologies December 18, 2012 A provider of storage protection solutions. Credant is the 19th acquisition in four years, as Dell had spent $13 billion on acquisitions since 2008 and $5 billion in the past year alone. ,

StatSoft March 24, 2014 A global provider of analytics software, in order to bolster its big data solutions offering.