Michael Dell, Mark Zuckerberg of his time, strikes deal to turn it around
The company he founded some 29 years ago rose to the top of the world's PC market more than a decade ago. In its heyday, its turn-of-the-millennium ad slogan, "Dude, you're getting a Dell,'' became a pop-culture catchphrase. Dell took orders straight from customers, first by phone and then by Internet, cutting out stores and passing the savings along.
"What Michael Dell was all about was getting products to people faster and more directly and at a lower cost than anyone could,'' said Forrester Research analyst David Johnson.
While Dell PCs are still used in offices and homes around the world, the industry has proved unforgiving to those who don't evolve with it. With smartphones booming, PC sales falling 3.5 percent last year, and tablets expected to outsell laptop computers this year, Dell's old slogan is more likely to be phrased as a question, as in: "Dude, you're getting a Dell?''
Dell Inc. is now the world's third-largest PC maker, having fallen behind Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo. Apple has a smaller share of the computer market but more than makes up for that with its sleek iPods, iPhones and iPads.
IBM managed to reinvent itself during the 1990s when its main business of selling mainframe computers began to suffer as desktop machines grew increasingly powerful. But it took nearly a decade.
Michael Dell stepped down as CEO in 2004, staying on as chairman. But the Round Rock, Texas, company faltered under CEO Kevin Rollins and saw
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