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Michael Dell's eyes are too close together.

Must be inbred.

You never tire of beating that horse, do you? It might get old when Apple is worth 10, 20, 50, or 100 times Dell's value.

seems like just yesterday...

No, I doubt I'll ever grow tired of hearing that. Makes me feel warm and tingly every time I do. You're a jerk, Michael. Taunting is for children, and if you do it as the CEO of a major company, you better be prepared to have it thrown back in your face for a few decades.

Loved the "cat got your tongue?" comment.

Feb 12, 09 - 02:47 pm Comment from: iSteve

"It might get old when Apple is worth 10, 20, 50, or 100 times Dell's value."

You never get tired of the classics.

What McDonalds is to hamburgers, Dell is to computers.

Agree that this will never get old, at least until Dell shuts down or Mikey gets the boot.
Still, it's sad to see the numbers confirm that Apple is now worth just half of what it was worth in Dec. '07. Oh well, Apple will get it back, hopefully within a year or two.
Go Apple!

Feb 12, 09 - 02:55 pm Comment from: Demon

Will Mickey What you waiting for?

Shut Dell down and give the money back to the shareholders.

Does anybody know where a photo of this picture of Michael Dell with a target on his face is at? I've heard about it for years but have never seen it.

Feb 12, 09 - 03:11 pm Comment from: critic

"You never tire of beating that horse, do you? It might get old when Apple is worth 10, 20, 50, or 100 times Dell's valu"

Hopefully that will be because Apple stock keeps going up, not because Dell keeps going down

Feb 12, 09 - 03:15 pm Comment from: HolyMackerel

Apple has $28B in cash and a market cap of $88B - does this mean the 'company' is only worth $US60B in the eyes of the market? Bit low given the less cash and higher market value last year.

Feb 12, 09 - 03:17 pm Comment from: mike_in_helsinki

Off the shelf, clueless asshat.

Feb 12, 09 - 03:18 pm Comment from: Spudly

@Skinny: This is a horse that's worth beating!

Feb 12, 09 - 03:26 pm Comment from: ken1w

When Dell goes out of business (without giving the money back to shareholders), Apple will be worth Dell X Googol.

"Quintuple" is just a rest stop in that road.

Feb 12, 09 - 03:29 pm Comment from: LateRegistrant

OK, so when will AAPL pass MSFT?

Place your bets....

Feb 12, 09 - 03:40 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

How about those Apples Mr. Dell.

And yes to the Microsoft question asked by LateRegistrant. Put it on a chart. Or think about the 14.4% increase of money in the bank in one really bad quarter. That would be 71.2% growth per year on $28.8 BILLION or $49.3 BILLION next year and $84.5 BILION the next year. Now think bigger with the great halo switch and another "Just one more thing".

So, YES!

luv it when u guys criticize a company which is undervalued compared to an overvalued company ....... Just look at the shareholders of dell and you would know who is the smarty pants.....for example

Glenn Greenberg, Prem Watsa,Mason Hawkins,Chris Davis,Charles Brandes

Don't tell me above guys are dumb........I am not saying Apple isn't a great company and did kick Dell`s ass BUT relative to its price Dell is a much better buy right now then AAPL.

LateRegistrant asks, "OK so when will AAPL pass MSFT?" That's going to take a while yet. As long as Windows and Office are the default choice for business, it's still sitting on a cash cow.

But back to Dell: I wonder how much of his personal and family net worth are tied up in Dell stock. At one time he was worth roughly what the entire company is today. Maybe if he'd have been less arrogant we'd be taking a bit less pleasure in his troubles.

Feb 12, 09 - 04:18 pm Comment from: Crabs

Wow, that was confusing. I clicked on their cat link and the Leopard page still has the BlackBooks. I almost thought for a moment that they brought them back. How sad.

Feb 12, 09 - 04:27 pm Comment from: DLMeyer

This just goes to show the value of picking your comparison numbers. Look at the value of Apple as compared to Dell - five times, you say? Well, not really ... you should really discount the Apple price by the value of OS X (Windows), the iPod (bwa-ha-ha) and the iPhone (many). Still more than twice Dell's value, though, just for the computers. Except that Dell still sells several times as many computers, both in the US and in the World market, as Apple does. And they'd rather hype THAT number. Not that it matters. MDN has been good about pointing out that it is the TRENDS you should watch rather than the current numbers. Any way you look at it, Apple is gaining on Dell.
Question, though. When Apple debuts the iPhone maxi (40% larger than current) will it count as a computer? Or an iPhone? Or will we just call it "another nail in Dell's coffin"?

Do you like Apples? I said do you like Apples?
Well I got the numbers how do you like those Apples

I just love that line from Good Will Hunting.

Michael Dell looks like GEorge W. Bush's long lost twin

@gaurav

Let me get this straight. By your logic if you were in the middle of the ocean, you would rather buy a $1000 sinking yacht than a $5000 perfect life raft? Value goes beyond a simple price tag.

Feb 12, 09 - 05:35 pm Comment from: qka

What, no bullseye or cross-hairs over Mikey's face?

Feb 12, 09 - 05:51 pm Comment from: Amazin1

Mikey Dell was a one trick pony and the pony has died. Also, his ego was too big -- named the friggin company after himself! Lets see, following what he did, we could have Job or Wozniak computers or following HP's lead, JW computers. Nah, I like the Apple branding.

@PDeville

Sinking shipping......Dell ??? You must be kidding. Here are their sales figures

YEAR: 2005 2006 2007 2008
Revenue: 49B 55B 57B 61B
Free Cash Flow: 4.8 4.1 3 3.1

This company is selling for Enterprise Value = 18B(market cap) - 8.5B(Cash)+ 2.1(Debt) = 11.6 Billion. It is generating 3 Billion Dollars in Free Cash Flow that it is returning to shareholders via Dividends and Share buy back. That means your return on investment annually is 3/11.6 = 25.8% yield.

Compare that with Apple Enterprise Value = 62Bil with Free Cash flow of around 8 Bill(average) gives you a yield of 8/62 = 13% yield.But that yield is not given to you. It is reinvested into Apple. There is no dividend or share buyback. So basically you hope/prey that apple will be able to achieve better return on its free cash flow that it does not return to shareholders.

Ok...... so you can be a person who is happy with apple keep all the free cash flow and let it reinvest for you. But for me I would luv to get 26% on my investment any day without taking into account any future growth.

Feb 12, 09 - 06:37 pm Comment from: Big Al

@ Gaurav,

In case you haven't heard, Dell is losing money every quarter. How long is that cash going to last?

Feb 12, 09 - 06:43 pm Comment from: silverhawk

@Amazin1
I think HP stands for Hewlett-Packard.

@Big Al - Can you read ?

If you can read this http://www.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:DELL please read and tell me one quarter that they have lost money.

The current reduction in net earnings is due to the restructuring charges which they are incurring now for cost cutting. This will result in better result over number of years.

I guess investors in AAPL stock can sit and adore apple products while I am counting my dollar bills at year end.

But I thought market value was meaningless....

As much as Dell can eat crow (and shit), we gotta be careful not to gloat.

Remember that Apple and Dell operate in the same lousy-and-worsening economic climate. There are no guarantees that either will survive this.

Let's check back when the gloom has lifted a little.

Feb 12, 09 - 08:19 pm Comment from: sinclap

As usual MDN is being hysterical and retarded..

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."

Heh heh heh.

@ Gaurav

You are looking at revenues without looking at outstanding shares: Apple brings in more revenue per share.

You appear to be looking a price to earnings without looking at growth: Apple's projected growth is inline with its P/E.

You are ignoring DELL's negative revenue growth YOY of -3%: Apple's positive at +5%

You are ignoring Dell's low profit margins of 5%: Apple's at 14.7%

You claim Dell pays dividends: they don't.

You cite Dell's share buy backs as a plus: the buy backs aren't creating enough value to counter the dropping stock price.

Had you bought and held shares of Apple and Dell anytime in the last decade, Apple would be outperforming Dell by a notable amount*.

*Past performance does not guarantee future success, but I would (and did) put my money on AAPL.

ACTUALLY Michael Dell WAS RIGHT.

What he means that if he were at the time in APPLE's CEO position he would have closed the company down...which is of course what any competitor would want done.

Shut down your most threatening competitor and for DELL it would be Apple!

So if you think of it MICHAEL DELL was a VISIONARY who saw the impending success of Apple at some time in the future which would jeopardize DELL then. And that's what is exactly happening now!

I say Dell was smart to forsee the future, but not smart enough (time will tell) to outcompete Apple.

MDN you've shouldda put a crosshair target graphic on that shitface, or better yet show the real one that Steve used. Also I just wonder what the market values of both in 1996 & 1997 just to see the big change over time. When a box assembler like Dell goes out of business, i guess nobody would care except Microsoft for its licence fees, what a joke with those peecees running that thing called windows that i had to use the other day, just can't wait to throw it out the window, piece of crap both hard & software.

@PDeville

Yes, thanks for pointing my mistake out. They do not pay dividends but the cash flow back to the shareholder they give out by share buybacks is the same as I told before.

Well I agree with you that 10 years ago or even one year ago Dell was not a buy but for me AAPL wasn't a buy either. Its not because I have anything against AAPL it is just that I put zero value for future growth. You might think of this as a lame way of investing but I call it agnostic way. I just try to focus if a company will be able to continue its business in the long run the way it is doing now and with the current earnings how much of the money the company returns to stock holders.

Basically I am not a growth investor. If AAPL earnings double in next two years the stock also will. But I have no way of 100% knowing that today.

I first time purchased DELL stock yesterday and I was never interested in DELL before. Just that at this price it seems like a steal.

To counter your arguments I am not looking at price to earnings ratio. I look at Free Cash Flow/ Enterprise Value. That basically is a metric that tells me how much cash does a business generate after all its operating expenses.

Even with declining revenue the stock price does not reflect the business value.

Profit margin does not matter as long as a business can generate enough free cash flow to justify their price.

Share buy backs are a huge plus. Every share bought and burnt basically increases the value of the share you hold. It has nothing to do with the stock price going up or not. As an owner of the company I would want the company to buy shares at lower prices than higher prices.

Yes if I bought Apple and Dell last decade I would have lost money in Dell. But I didn't but in last decade for a reason. The price was not right. And I believe the price is right now.

We will see.....

@Gaurav
Good luck you're gonna need it. Dell's not really clear on future strategy and the slash and burn cost cutting they did in the past is no substitute for solid R&D;. Dell right now is in the same place that Apple was when Jobs was forced out except Mike Dell is back and other execs are leafing or getting fired. The next few years for Dell will be rough.

If dividends are what you're interested in I recommend buying ETF DVY and back the value up with one protective put per hundreds shares and sell covered calls. You can make probably 30% per year conservatively using this strategy with low risk of losing your principal. For you to buy Dell shares now is the bet against the trend and that never works, unless you employ the strategy I outlined above with DVY. The difference being you won't make any dividends with DELL so you may make considerably less.

Let's look at market share, shall we? Apple sells shitty hardware at an exorbitant price. Of course they are going to have more cash on hand because all of you fanboys purchase Apple's shit without a care in the world. Dell offers computers that are affordable for everyone, not just the elite. So of course their bottom line may not be as impressive as Apple's, but if you look at the market share, bottom line is Dell is blowing Apple out of the water!

Feb 13, 09 - 10:11 am Comment from: twilightmoon

@getalife so you're saying it doesn't matter how much money Dell or Apple makes, only how many widgets they sell?

Reminds me of an old saying: "you're giving them out for free? How will you make any money?" "volume!"

@Gaurav
I think someone once mentioned something in the lines of: "it's the software, stupid."
Dell's handicap is MS. When you invest in Dell, you are also pitting in with MS vision of Win 7 strategy etc. vs. Apple's Snow Leopard's Grand Central's strategy.
From what I've ascertained from your previous comments, it appears to me that you like to take away as many of the coefficients and focus solely on the 'business revenue' with or without a future growth. That's a bit absurd in many ways, but more importantly, as I have already stated, you are now dealing with an extra 3rd party entity MS with it's own business revenue strategy. If Win 7 turns out to be greatest resource hog or security risk, that might drive the business in hordes towards.. not towards HP, or Lenovo with a Ubuntu scheme or whoever box du jour, but Apple.
Yes, there's a huge 'if' and likely even improbable. But seriously, your arguments aren't solid, and I think even Dell is seriously concerned with the eroding revenue trends. Speculation wise, I am of the opinion, that Dell might be in bed those Psystar kids.
You might do well to heed the advice of the previous poster, and jump out of the sinking ship, and show prudence in this economy with a company where the money will be safe if not sound for the next couple of years.

Mikey Dell was a one trick pony, and that pony has died.

Also, his ego is too big — naming the friggin' company after himself!

Lets see. Following what Mike did, we could have Job or Wozniak Computers. Or following HP's lead, we'd have JW Computers.

Nah. I like the Apple branding.

Feb 13, 09 - 05:01 pm Comment from: Amazin1

I am flattered Bizarro to be copied by you!

Silverhawk, I know what HP stands for -- my point was if Jobs and Woz had put their names on the company (Like Mr Packard and Mr. Hewlett had done) we'd be using JW computers -- not Apple computers. Sorry for any confusion I caused.

I was just trying to help.

Oh well, let no good deed go unpunished.