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It's Official Dell Acquired Alienware
robyn217 writes "Dell just confirmed today that it had acquired boutique PC vendor Alienware. Alienware's Nelson Gonzalez said that his company will continue on with its own brand, design, sales and marketing, and support, though, so Alienware isn't going anywhere just yet. Gonzalez also said that Alienware PCs would not carry a Dell logo, and that he would report directly to Jim Schneider, Dell's chief financial officer. "I think that you'll find it very hard to find the Dell name on the [Alienware] web site," he said." The rumor is now fact.
Look at the Dell DJ. It hasn't gotten anywhere at all because Dell is just not a brand that normal people associate with cool gadgets and computers. Well that and Apple has the holy trinity of music distribution, but anyway...
Dell stands to reap a lot of benefits by letting Alienware be Alienware. It sends money their way and is a brand that helps them fight Apple. Switching them to Dell would dull the appeal of the product line if for no other reason than Dell is seen as the functional, not fast and gamer machine, makers.
Alienware sells computers with AMD processors. By extension, Dell is selling AMD-based machines!
I still remember when EA bought Origin. Garriot was quoted saying that Origin will still have control over their games and EA will just allow them to make bigger and better games with a wider distribution. I remember this because I remember it happened around the time Ultima 7 came out, and it worried me. While I never bought an Alienware box, these statements seem similar. As mentioned by others, Dell's hand will be there pushing in one direction or another. Maybe I am just jaded because my programming job at Dell was outsourced to a $5/hour Brazilian, but Dell is evil. No body smiled at work, and was always worried about loosing their jobs. Evil biz practices, like the Printer fiasco, and all of that makes me avoid Dell products.