business

Michael Dell's best hope is to somehow patent or trademark the logistical knowhow that made Dell a force to be reckoned with. Really, that's the only thing that distinguishes Dell from other company putting together PCs. It's been a long time since Dell led the market in price/performance and they've never led the market in features, usability, design, support, or anything else. Dell is not a maker, it's a follower. And Michael Dell has been at this for around 30 years besides. Maybe it's time to step aside and enjoy life.

There is little to no reason for Dell (the company) and more. If Michael Dell had any sense he'd cash out and go do something else.

I worked for a company that went private. CEO loved not having to suck up to short term thinking Wall St. analysts....and $$ that were going out to stock holders in the form of dividends were now being reinvested in the company. Two very strong reasons to do this....as long as you don't end up with a mountain of debt.....my company was not...it was purchased by Warren Buffett.

Maybe he does have good ideas, but just hates being hamstrung by risk averse shareholders who would rather the company downsize itself to a short-term profit....

Short term profit. Like today? None of us is even promised tomorrow. Live now. People wish for the good old days? Live for today!

I don't think PCs and laptops are going anywhere. People aren't replacing them with tablets, they're augmenting them with tablets. The difference now is that most of us don't need to update our PCs all that often. It used to be every 2 years before your system was obsolete. Now, my 5 year old dell tower at work does all the MS Office I can legitimately call work tasks. My 4 year old PC at home downloads and stores all the music, videos, ect. that I'm interested in. We bought a tablet for the convenience. But it didn't replace the PC. We'll eventually replace it. A saturated, non-growth industry isn't the same as a dead one. A company with a good logistics base could still reign in a lot of money year in and year out, even if the growth prospects weren't there.

Being private comes with many perks. Just ask Cargill. Shareholder demand can destroy a company from the inside out. There are more important things for a company to focus on than short term profit, which is basically what most shareholders are interested in. Dell could just come back to prosperity under a private restructure.

you forget Dell has already done this once. and he's ready to grab his steamer trunk of cash and bail out again. yas, yas, there has never been a better time to buy a PC company. all the while, he's looking at his watch and fidgeting.