Dell considered buyout
At a financial conference, Michael Dell says he had considered taking his company private--but doesn't explain why.
At an investor conference in New York Thursday, Michael Dell said he has considered taking his company private.
He made the statement in response to a question at a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. conference, according to several reports. Dell did not explain why or what the motivation for considering selling his company had been.
Apparently, it was a passing thought, because Dell followed up the comment by saying he is "totally committed to continuing to run the business for a long period of time" and that he has "every intention to continue running the company for the foreseeable future."
Michael Dell
(Credit: Dell)Dell returned as CEO three years ago to the company he founded, instituting a turnaround plan that still hasn't gotten the company completely back on track.
After a successful run to the top of the PC industry, the computer maker appeared caught off guard by the surge in consumer spending on laptops starting in 2006. Hewlett-Packard, and more recently Acer, recognized the change in the market, made some successful adjustments, and never looked back.
Dell has employed several new tactics to invigorate its business, including getting back into retail, focusing more on product design, shaking up its organizational structure, and looking to shed costs through shutting down some manufacturing plants and several rounds of layoffs.
Still, Dell told the investor conference attendees Thursday he has seen "some very encouraging signs in terms of our shift in the mix of the business to...enterprise services and solutions."
He also pointed to the "pent-up replacement cycle" and the growth in emerging countries that should push the company to grow its business overall. But it may not be at the hands of the PC. Growth in the PC market "is going to be an increasingly less relative way to measure" the company's success, he said.
