Founder makes largest Dell insider purchase

Dell shares rose as high as 4.5 percent Wednesday, following reports that founder Michael Dell acquired nearly $100 million in shares in the computer maker.

Dell climbed as high as $23.18 a share in intraday trading, before closing out the session at $22.70 a share, up 2.34 percent.

Dell's founder, according to a report in MarketWatch, purchased 4.5 million shares between June 27 and July 1 at an average price of $22.14 a share.

Dell's buying spree comes after the company reported respectable first-quarter results, which came off a challenging 2007 when it was feeling the effects of missing out on some big industry trends.

During the first quarter, Dell told analysts, the company's unit shipments grew 22 percent, while the industry rose by 14 percent. And Dell's notebook revenue climbed 22 percent over the past year.

Michael Dell's stock purchase not only marked the largest he's ever made of the computer maker's shares, but also puts him at the top of conducting the largest purchase ever at the company by an insider, according to MarketWatch's report.

[MaLvaDo39]

Dell's for sale.

[Galaxy5]

You may be right. But to whom? Apple? That'd be interesting, and quite ironic, given that Dell advised Apple to shut down and "give the money back to the shareholders" . Apple would get huge leverage on suppliers, a tight supply chain, and a consumer PC business. I can't see HP buying them, can you? That'd have anti-trust written all over it and would sadly cheapen the entire home and small business PC sector.

[Perry_Clease]

"Dell's for sale."

Maybe not. My first thought is that there is a sea change in the offing at Dell, something new that will really boost sales. Maybe they are going to focus on selling Linux boxes with Office clone software or Mac clones for that matter. Not being real up on the SEC stuff, but would Michael buying the stock if he knew something was up at Dell be an insider trading type of violation.

[ismetd]

maybe Dell is licensing the Mac OSX, possible, why not?

[Perry_Clease]

Apple probably is not interested in licensing OSX to Dell or anyone else.

[The_Decider]

The one thing that Dell could do to help them, would destroy Microsoft in a few short years, is something Apple has never even implied they were interested in.

[Galaxy5]

Dell is not going to focus on Linux or sell Mac Clones.

[bob haring]

it should be effects, not affects. two different words with two different meanings. bob haring

[lmasanti]

Maybe Michel Dell is following its own comment on Apple: "Give the money back to shareholders!"

[humanssssss]

i think Dell is going to export his just-in-time model to build computers and laptops to China and India. They are the biggest consumers of computers and laptops now.

[christophercomp]

I think that he may be giving some money back to the shareholders as well. That's too big of a move to quick to show that he would be selling the company.

[The_Decider]

All the parts come from China, why not assemble those parts there? After all that is all that Dell does(and every other OEM including Apple), assemble off the shelf hardware and slap a crappy OS(except for Apple) on top of it.

[Pitdoggie]

Maybe..Just Maybe the dollar has fallen in value on the world market...and maybe just maybe some guy has a bunch of cash sitting around....and maybe...JUST MAYBE he knows that the dollar is going to come back up someday...

Duh!

[Igloo888888]

LOL! Selling Dell. Seriously folks, please step back into the real world. He is buying stock because the company is back on track, the dollar is low, and I think in the middle of all that, he wants to make a point loud and clear that he thinks the company is going to be #1 again.

[JadedConsumer]

Buying DELL shares at this juncture may be good for employee morale, but I doubt it's good economic sense. Dell's growing share doesn't indicate growing profits if his margins collapse.
http://jadedconsumer.blogspot.com/2008/08/dell-wheres-competitive-advantage.html

For box-makers, I like HPQ and AAPL. Honestly, though, I'd be more interested in finding a turnaround story among well-run financials who've been tarred wrongly with the subprime brush.