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Michael Dell Steps Down as CEO
A whole lot of readers made sure we knew that Michael Dell is calling it quits as CEO of Dell, and has named Kevin Rollins, the current president and chief operating officer of Dell, as his successor. Rollins will retain the title of president, but Michael Dell hasn't left completely. He's still planning on sticking around as chairman of the board.
You're getting a huge pension!
a bad*ss like Henry Rollins tearin' it up as CEO. "CUZ I'M A LIAR!"
Look it's a joke about my sig IN MY SIG! LOL!
"Dude, you're getting a Rollins" just doesn't have the same ring to it...
As compared to ....
You stepping down?
So if Michael Dell is stepping down and Kevin Rollins is taking over, does this mean I will soon be able to buy a PC with Rollins written on the case?
Awesome!
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He didn't even wait to copycat Steve on this one! What a shame!
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!
must have something to do with exponential growth of Lunux on desktops, which I am told is happening
No kidding. Two years ago 1, last year there were 2, this year: 4!
Perhaps he's interested in plumbing. Ya think?
Someone like Dell will not go quietly into night. Even though his title is changing, nobody believes that he still won't have a profound influence over the company. It is his baby. THis will most likely be like Gates and MS. Sure, his title is different than what it used to be but he certainly still has a tremendous influence.
No trees were harmed in the composition of this; however, numerous electrons were inconvenienced.
Dell has gone a long way in the industry and has helped computing for the masses under Michael Dell's leadership. However, I'm hopefull the new CEO will increase the declining quality of Dell's products. I believe that their cost-cutting measures have really injured their corporate following; they aren't perceived as being as high of quality as they once were.
Said Dell, "It just got to the point where I was so damn rich, It just wasn't fun any more."
Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
You won't be laughing in 20 years!
This is not a troll, really. I'm just surprised they said something sorta like "Michael will think about The Next Big Thing (tm)" when they are just a hyper-efficient marketing arm/merchandizing facade for Intel. "Dell and R&D" don't go together in my mind, contrary to "Apple and R&D" or "IBM and R&D". Dell is nothing more than a glorified Northgate (or Everex, whatever).
No, IMO, this does not jive. Either M. Dell has other objectives (politics, maybe, I dunno) or there was some sort of back-stage coup.
Dell said at Oracle conference in SF last year that SUN and HP spend too much on overrated research and development and consequently are driving the cost of their systems up even higher.
He should be fired now.
And when we say "sticking around as chairman of the board", we mean "snorting cocaine off the backs of hookers on his yacht".
We all know who the puppetmaster is. You don't have to wear all the hats to still be the man behind the curtain. This doesn't surprise me, Dell's quality has suffered in recent months and it wouldn't surprise me if he was doing this to take some of the pressure off of himself.
I think this is actually a very wise move by Dell, because while this is a guy who started a business on his own and became extremely good at it, I would be surprised (I honestly don't know) if he was that business school MBA who can lead a company over the long run. Plus, if Rollins messes up, he can always blame the new CEO for all the problems.
Maybe under this new leadership Dell will stop it's massive pay cuts to ensure it will have enough money for it's "10K A Day Giveaway."
I would know. My dad is one of the best Dell's licensing sales rep in his building and went from making bank (compared to what he used to make at Circuit City) to making near $60,000. Not only was it shocking at the time, it was appalling when two days later Dell announced it's "10K A Day Giveaway," not to mention the massive payroll cuts a few weeks after that.
Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. -- Larry Wall
"Michael Dell is calling it quits as CEO of Dell, and has named Kevin Rollins..."
Oh man, it'd be so much cooler if he named Henry Rollins as his successor. There would really be some ass kicking going on then...
Dude, you're getting a fucking punch in the face!!!
"It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
Yeah, but for many people (especially CEOs, after a while) such decisions have nothing to do with pay. Many of these CEOs work up the ladder (or establish the company, in Dell's case) put in the effort and the hours, earn hundreds of millions of dollars, and don't see any reason to continue working, even though they might make $500K, $1M.
It says that he had softened his role previously, working on big picture issues, and all the things that are sort of fun to do and don't necessarily generate a hard product, so it probably won't change anything. Probably he just got burned out and wanted to do regattas, Larry Ellison-style.
Anyone know if the new guy is Linux-friendly?
I know Dell claims to be, and pretended to try Linux on consumer systems and gave up claiming "they weren't selling"... but that was because of the systems they chose to list Linux as an option with.
Just because we like an OS that _happens_ to be free (in both senses of the word), doesn't mean we're cheapskates!
How many Linux users do you know who would go out and buy the bottom-of-the-line of anything?
We go for the hotrods, bigger/better/faster/more.
I don't care if that monster notebook weighs 8.5#, I'm not a wimp, I want the power and rediculously-high resolution screen!
Actually - after reading an article on installing Linux on an I8600, I priced one - amazing how cheap you can get a 1920x1200 LCD notebook for these days.
Too bad it requires the MS-tax.
The 1st thing I'd do with it is shrink down the MS partition to as small as it goes (to keep it around to make the diag-drones happy) and install Linux on it. (just like I did with the notebook I'm typing this on, sadly only having 1400x1050 on the LCD).
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
When I first read the headline I thought Dell had finally outsourced their CEO position.
(No doubt to be closer to the core of the company.)
Support top-down outsourcing!
I can only hope that Mr. Rollins has the balls to step up and start supporting Linux. Dell has always been so wishy-washy about it... especially since they are known to get the largest discounts from M$. Perhaps a new CEO will mean new life for a new millenium and we'll actually get better Linux support across more of their product line.
BTW: anyone notice that Dell's latest snail mail ad catalog was offering RedHat? So was Gateway's.
The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers
Only 15 years ago, Dell's new CEO was up on stage fronting his band, Dexy's Midnight Runners, dressed in faded denim dungarees and singing "Come On Eileen" and now look at him... chairman of a global computer corporation... amazing.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I'd think that the answer is obvious: Rollins will be Linux-friendly if he thinks it will make Dell more money and he won't if he doesn't.
One of the reforms suggested (i.e. not enforced by any code or law) by the SEC as a response to the enron/worldcom pseudo-scandal is that the job of CEO and chairman be split. Note that Disney just did this in the hopes of deflecting some dirt.
In the case of Dell: if your company is doing well but you want to split this job to make the Street happy, well, would you take the job that involves more work or the one that involves less? So the CEO job becomes more like a COO...and guess what? Rollins is the COO right now!
Like other posters I doubt this implies much change for Dell the company or Dell the man.
The Dell vision has been and continues to be to enter markets just before they reach commoditization and to rapidly scale up market share by undercutting on price.
Think they don't have R&D people? Think again -- they've got hundreds. But those hundreds are busy looking for the next market Dell can enter and dominate (think of how they entered the server market and, more recently, the PDA market).
Just because someone spends their R&D dollars on econometric models and market research rather than trying to invent truly new products doesn't mean they're not innovating. Dell taught an entire generation of successful companies how to analyze, parse, enter and dominate markets.
"It was a summer's tale: Just a boy, his Linux, and a head full of dreams..."
Ted Waitt did the same thing at Gateway three or four years ago, to pursue his interests in sexual violence prevention and equitable access to technology. Oddly enough I work on both of those, and have had the chance to meet him several times. Waitt's intelligence and money have helped in these areas, and I can only hope that Michael Dell might think about doing something similar.
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Mr. Dell is cashing out because he knows the PC market is TOAST!. PCs are such a commodity now days that Dell doesn't have an advantage anymore. Just look at the sub $200 PCs at Walmart! And with China and Korea quickly sucking up market share, it won't be long before you can nab a highend PC for $200.
I'm not saying this is bad. It's just that Mr. Dell is smart and KNOWS the market is about to crumble. In fact, Dell doesn't make anything anymore, they just rebrand the laptops made by Samsung. Soon, Samsung will cut out the middle man and sell the laptops themselves.
Also, you can forget about fixing and repairing PCs as job security. That goldmine has ran out. Why pay someone $100 just to patch up an older PC when you can get a new one for double that amount (and comes with warranty)?
Life is not for the lazy.