Microsoft looks to acquire Dell

[BruceVC]

http://www.onenewspage.com/n/Technology/74vnphvlq/Microsoft-might-invest-up-to-billion-in.htm

 

http://news.yahoo.com/reports-microsoft-may-invest-dell-180008586.html

 

Hi All

 

I find this development absolutely fascinating, its a potential game changer going forward for the PC hardware industry

 

I am a software consultant so I can see the ramifications for this. Please note that nothing is confirmed but this is the speculation.

 

Michael Dell, founder of Dell, plans to buy back all public shares of Dell. He will then get private investment to invest in Dell. Microsoft being one of the interested parties. By doing this he is no longer beholden to the direction that shareholders feel he needs to take the company

 

So if this happens what we will get is an integrated PC desktop, laptop and Server running Microsoft. Many of you are probably saying "but this is common now. We get IBM, HP and other hardware vendors that come pre-installed with Microsoft software? "

 

The difference now is the price that this Dell\Microsoft venture can sell the hardware at. No one will be able to compete with it. At the moment hardware vendors have to pay for the hardware production cost and then the software cost to Microsoft. Imagine how competitive a company could be that owned the hardware and software? This may even raise some anti-competitive legal issues?

 

I am a big supporter of Microsoft so I'll be watching this space closely.

 

[AwesomeOcelot]

They think that Dell is still a formidable player and asset to Windows based laptop/desktop/tablet revenue, they're just backing them. Windows licenses aren't that much for PC manufacturers, Microsoft is interested in maintaining its monopoly, it doesn't want to harm that. They're not going to undercut other manufacturers by much if anything, they didn't do that with the Surface, Google also didn't because they're both relying on the other manufacturers, they don't want them to suddenly look into Ubuntu for desktop and drop Windows RT entirely.

[alanschu]

Why is Dell looking to buy up public stock?  Just tired of the issues that come with being public?

[BruceVC]

Why is Dell looking to buy up public stock?  Just tired of the issues that come with being public?

 

Yes that appears to be the reason, we should know more as the story unfolds

 

I have friends who work at Dell and apparently Micheal Dell can't take the company the way he wants to as a listed company.

[Oerwinde]

Shareholders are a detriment to most public companies. They prevent companies from thinking long term if it will result in short term losses.

 

Anyway, I'm surprised microsoft hasn't already started doing prebuilt pcs. The majority of issues windows had was driver conflicts. If they built their own branded pcs with optimized specs and such, they could theoretically compete with macs in terms of stability and such.

Edited January 25, 2013 by Oerwinde

[Luridis]

This is a bad move... M$ is already falling into disfavor with lots in the industry and more importantly with their customers. Alienating them further by competing in the PC space will likely push people towards linux distros and more importantly towards a potential google OS. I mean, that would be good for the consumer, but this is bad for the M$ monopoly.

[samm]

Seeing that Dell may not rely on Intel's illegal founding anymore (Intel for a while  payed for literally three quarters of Dell's income in order to have that company not pursue alternate and at the time more viable options xD * ), and they know how to produce pretty good computer monitors: MS branded hardware was always decent, judging from their computer peripherals I've used so far (mice, joysticks, gamepad) and now the Surface tablet and its accessories, so it would be an okay fit imo. Also, as Luridis states, it may help the propagation of Linux in desktop systems (against MS' intents of course), so all in all, to me this looks like a good deal to me  

 

*

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/359770/intel-sweeteners-made-up-76-of-dells-income

In 2003, the payments made up only 9% of Dell's operating income. At their peak in the first financial quarter of 2007, the payments from Intel made up 76% of Dell's quarterly operating income, $723 million against an operating income of $949 million (... )

Following the five-year investigation, the SEC fined Dell $100 million. It also fined chief executive Michael Dell and Rollins $4 million each and former CFO James Schneider $3 million

 

Edited January 25, 2013 by samm

[Luridis]

There is one potential down-side, a big one... If the intent of this, and Intel's announcement that it's leaving the motherboard business, is to push Trusted Computing. Microsoft has managed to slip that one into SurfaceRT without public outcry, but I only see that getting worse if they're making desktops now. Hopefully business will have the sense god-give-a-dog and not lock themselves in further while M$ sits back and watches the Open Source movement die.

 

Edit: For those that don't know... Trusted Computing's ultimate goal is to prevent the execution of unsigned code. Guess who decides if you get a certificate or not?

Edited January 25, 2013 by Luridis

[Luridis]

Aww... I wonder why they want to invest in Dell? http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Chrome-OS-Chromebook-Windows-8-Jim-Wong-Windows-RT,20746.html

[BruceVC]

Aww... I wonder why they want to invest in Dell? http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Chrome-OS-Chromebook-Windows-8-Jim-Wong-Windows-RT,20746.html

 

 

That is interesting, I still maintain that this acquisition is actually about Microsoft's long term survival in the changing user hardware market. Your article articulates yet another threat to Microsoft's domination of the OS market. So what MS is doing makes perfect strategic sense to me.

[rjshae]

Over the long haul, vertical monopolies tends to result in higher prices and slower innovation. Hence, I don't see this as a good thing. But hopefully it results in a net boost for the Linux market on the server side.

[BruceVC]

Over the long haul, vertical monopolies tends to result in higher prices and slower innovation. Hence, I don't see this as a good thing. But hopefully it results in a net boost for the Linux market on the server side.

 

 

Linux, Linux ? Who cares about Linux

 

I use to work for Microsoft so you understand where my loyalty lies. But you know that Linux is already the dominant Web and SMTP server that customers use globally, so Linux is doing fine. I only see it going from strength to strength in its own way