Founder returns as CEO of Dell
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Dell Inc., battered by battery recalls and disappointing earnings, said yester day that chairman Michael Dell will return to run the company he built into one of the world's largest makers of personal computers.
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Michael Dell's return as chief executive of the computer maker he founded 23 years ago is unlikely to fix a company quickly that stumbled under ex-CEO Kevin Rollins, analysts said on Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - DellÂ on Thursday announced that Michael Cannon, the current president and CEO of electronics maker Solectron, will head a newly formed group that will oversee much of the company's operations, including manufacturing, procurement and suppliers. Cannon's appointment is the latest sign of a management shakeup underway at Dell, and underscores the seriousness of the challenges facing the company. Paul Tufano succeeds Cannon and will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement. Once the PC industry's superstar, Dell has struggled in recent quarters. The companyÂ lost its title of world's largest PC vendorÂ to a resurgent Hewlett-Packard. The company also faces scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission intoÂ its accounting practices, which forced the company to delay filing its financial results for the second and third quarters of 2006. In addition, Dell last yearÂ recalled millions of defective laptop batteries, after they were determined to pose a potential fire risk to customers. In a bid to turn things around, Dell CEOÂ Kevin Rollins was replaced last monthÂ by Michael Dell, the company's chairman. Dell's return was accompanied by warnings that the company's financial results for the fourth quarter, to be announced March 1, will fall below analyst expectations. Cannon, who was president and CEO of hard-disk maker MaxtorÂ -- now part of Seagate TechnologyÂ -- before joining Solectron, will be responsible for improving Dell's manufacturing operations after he starts work on Feb, 26. His job includes the responsibility for opening factories that are closer to customers and improving the company's supply chain, Dell said, noting that plans are underway to add new factories in India, Poland and Brazil. The ultimate goal, according to Dell, is to improve product quality while shortening manufacturing times and reducing costs. Â
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Rod Thorn, who built the New Jersey Nets into National Basketball Association contenders, will return as president and CEO.
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Computer maker Dell Inc. plans to hire another 500 engineers to work in its central Texas product development operations, founder and Chairman Michael Dell announced Monday.
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U.S. stocks rose on Thursday after a key inflation gauge underscored hopes for steady interest rates and technology stocks rose after news that Dell Inc.  Chairman Michael Dell would resume his duties as chief executive.
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Dell Inc.  has named former EDS  executive Steve Schuckenbrock to lead the computer maker's $5 billion a year global services organization, the latest in a string of new management hires.
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AUSTIN, Texas  - Dell Inc. DELL.O founder and   Chairman Michael Dell sees computer gaming becoming a $4   billion-per-year industry by 2010 as consumers hook up to   high-speed Internet services to battle monsters on-line.
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(InfoWorld) - Stock in Dell was rising Monday on news thatÂ founder Michael Dell plans to remain as CEO for several years, trim the number of managers reporting directly to him, and eliminate bonuses. "We have a tough couple of quarters ahead. We didn't get here overnight, and we won't fix things overnight either," Dell wrote in a memo to employees on Friday. "Last year ... we had great efforts but not great results. This is disappointing, and it is unacceptable." Dell pointed to several problems with the company, including an overgrown bureaucracy and operating expenses that had grown too fast. "We have great people ... but we also have a new enemy: bureaucracy, which costs us money and slows us down. We created it, we subjected our people to it, and we have to fix it!" Dell said. "I am asking each of you to look across your organizations and eliminate redundancies." On Monday, a corporate spokeswoman confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which had been leaked to media over the weekend. The company has been buffeted in recent days by the resignation of CEO Kevin Rollins last Wednesday,Â Michael Dell announcing he would take over that job, and the accusation inÂ a lawsuit by investorsÂ on Friday that 15 top executives had garnered millions of dollars by selling their stock after propping up the company's faltering revenue with secret payments from Intel. Even before those blows landed, Dell was wobbling on a threat by the Nasdaq stock exchange to drop its stock unless the company files its overdue quarterly earnings reports.Â Dell has delayed filing those numbers for the past two terms as it struggles to satisfy an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its accounting practices. It is not yet clear if that investigation is related to the investors' charges that Dell hid payments by Intel in exchange for staying exclusively loyal to one brand of microprocessor in its PCs. When Michael Dell announced on Wednesday he would return to his position as CEO, the company was already in the midst of a reorganization plan that calls for $100 million in spending to improve the customer service practices that allow it to bypass retail stores with its famed "direct sales" business model. The company was also following Rollins' plan toÂ remake itself as "Dell 2.0,"Â trying to move beyond an enormousÂ notebook PC battery recall in August by focusing on industrial design, overseas factories, and a move to diversify its computers by using chips fromÂ AMD as well as those from Intel. In his Friday memo, Dell added new details to that strategy. He promised to turn around the company by focusing on the SMB sector, enterprise servers and storage, shorter design cycles for new products, and increased sales in emerging markets. He also made a few corporate changes, recalling Paul Bell from his job running the company's markets in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) to lead Dell's new Americas group, which includes the fast-growing SMB sector. Dell also created a "global operations" division to focus on manufacturing and procurement. "I remember what it's like to start a company. We're moving fast. There is no luxury of time. The competitors are fierce. The difference is this time we have many new assets and some hidden ones that can be brought out," he wrote. Dell did not describe the hidden assets he would use to rescue his company's prospects, but he hinted that Dell had enough resources to outspend its competition. AlthoughÂ Dell handed the title of world's largest PC vendor to HP this year, it is still a corporate colossus. "When I started back in 1984, it was just me. But now we are blessed to have an awesome team, many great assets, and $11 billion or so," Dell said. Â
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Dell Inc. DELL.O Chairman Michael   Dell on Tuesday threw his support behind Chief Executive Kevin   Rollins, while promising the computer maker was "working   diligently" to resolve its mounting problems.
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A month after being hit by a massive battery recall, Dell Inc. founder and Chairman Michael Dell emphasized the company's &#151; and his own &#151; forays into video games.
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Michael Dell has returned to his spot as Chief Executive of Dell Inc. after the resignation of Kevin Rollins, the Texas computer maker said Wednesday.  The company said Dell would remain the company's chairman. Rollins resigned as a board member.
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Brief biography of Michael S. Dell, chairman and chief executive of Dell Inc.  Born: February 23, 1965, in Houston to an orthodontist and a stockbroker. Made his first $1,000 by selling stamps at age 12, and sold newspaper subscriptions for the now-defunct Houston Post.
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Dell Inc DELL.O Chairman Michael   Dell threw his support behind Chief Executive Kevin Rollins on   Tuesday, a day after the computer maker canceled an analyst   meeting and suspended a buyback program amid an accounting   probe.
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Stock in Dell was rising Monday on news thatÂ founder Michael Dell plans to remain as CEO for several years, trim the number of managers reporting directly to him, and eliminate bonuses.
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After eight years at the company, Kevin Rollins was appointed president and CEO of the $41.4 billion computer juggernaut Dell Computer last July. Many still think of Dell as a desktop supplier, but the company has become a powerhouse in server and notebooks as well and is making strong moves in the printer and storage markets.
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The former CEO of NetScreen Technologies has moved on to a new upstart. Can he make the same magic work again?