back to article Dell buyout stalled by Microsoft, low takeover price?

The word making its way around Wall Street is that Michael Dell's plan to take the company that bears his name private through a leveraged buyout has stalled because of the competing interests of private equity firm Silver Lake, which is ponying up a big piece of the cash to do the deal, and current Dell shareholders who want …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Maybe Dell just doesn't understand customers anymore?

    When I read about the declining use of desktop PC's, I often wonder if fewer people are actually using them, or if more people have simply taught themselves to build their own rigs or upgrade the towers that sit beside their desks? The last time I bought a desktop outright was about 1998. Since then I've built several, and usually have a few around that I'm upgrading or modifying.

    The main reasons I do this are: 1. it's easy to teach yourself; 2. I got so sick and tired of HP and Dell and Sony and IBM and others sticking me with overpriced proprietary components, when the standard gear at the local electronics shops were often 1/4 the price or less and worked as well or better.

    If a company like Dell were to begin selling laptops that were truly upgradable with standard, affordable off-the-shelf parts, I'll bet their sales would take off again.

    1. chris 17 Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Maybe Dell just doesn't understand customers anymore?

      sure if your into computers, an upgradable pc/laptop/tablet from a big name brand with full warranty sounds great. Everyone else just wants to use the web (shop, bank, book tickets etc), check their mail & read and produce documents. i'm now wishing i got my 74 year old dad a chrome book instead of the cheap samsung i3 from pc world that came with win8 (purchased the first week of win8 availability). having never experienced the crap that is win 8 i had 4 hours to make it look as much like win 7 so he could take it abroad with him. the problems are now compounded that hotmail has changed to outlook and he can't find out how to forward mail as buttons have all changed. remotely supporting a piece of crap win8 laptop is no fun (yes i have remote access to it & yes he has an iPad). a touch interface on a non touch laptop via a remote session is hell. I think the real problem is that M$ don't understand their end customers and force this crap on their OEM's. OEM's need a consumer friendly OS

    2. P. Lee
      Facepalm

      Re: Maybe Dell just doesn't understand customers anymore?

      > If a company like Dell were to begin selling laptops that were truly upgradable with standard, affordable off-the-shelf parts, I'll bet their sales would take off again.

      No, they'll lose sales to some Chinese shop on ebay.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe Dell just doesn't understand customers anymore?

      The desktop PC is declining or simply upgrade cycles are getting longer, especially when economy is in trouble? If you're a single user, or a very small company, you can build/upgrade your own PCs. If you're a bigger company, you can't - because you can't let your employees put their hands inside company equipment (not everybody is able, moreover you may be liable if something bad happens and the employee was not qualified to perform the task),and you may not want to hire technicians to perform that job. My home computer is custom built, but my office one is a Dell Precision - we have a good deal with Dell so prices are not so bad.

      You should understand why laptops don't use standard, affordable, off-the-shelf parts: there's no way to build one such way and make it small and light - you would end up with a large, heavy, ugly laptop - and no one would but it.

  2. MacRat
    Pirate

    Ubutnu Systems

    Time for Mark Shuttleworth to invest and start ramping up Ubuntu systems.

    1. beep54
      Meh

      Re: Ubutnu Systems

      First, Ubuntu has to get their collective head out of their ass. Amazon.com anyone? Unity??

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    It's hard to believe that private equity firms are any kinder or gentler than Wall Street

    SOP: borrow loads of money; buy firm; load firm with your debt; charge firm mega fees for loading it with debt; profit!; let the suckers take the pain when it all goes pear shaped.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re hire car + food + petrol

    another model is bottled water + ammunition.

  5. Herby

    Dell??

    Dull!!

  6. C 7

    Surprise...

    Company with mediocre desktops, rebadged asus laptops, craptastic servers and shite customer support can't figure out how to take their company private in a sensible manner. Yawn.

  7. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
    Joke

    Not the first to suggest...

    That Michael Dell wind up the company and return the money to its shareholders...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Microsoft mentioned a lot?

    That's eight mentions of Microsoft on the main page .. and three mentions of Windows ...

    Oh, look an advert for a Chromebook and a Google Nexus at the top ...

    1. dogged
      Meh

      Re: Microsoft mentioned a lot?

      That's eight mentions of Microsoft on the main page .. and three mentions of Windows ...

      And all but one of them deeply negative.

      Hard to see, for example, how MS offering $Bn as part of a $22Bn buyout can be seen as "stalling" that buyout as the headline suggests and the article tries really hard to justify.

      Oh, look an advert for a Chromebook and a Google Nexus at the top ...

      Licking the hand that feeds The Register...

      1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

        Re: Re: Microsoft mentioned a lot?

        "Licking the hand that feeds The Register"

        Good grief. Search for Google. We've said plenty of rude things about them.

        C.

        1. dogged
          Trollface

          Re: Microsoft mentioned a lot?

          @Chris - You have to be able to take it if you're going to dish it out

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Both Dell and HP have lost sight of what they really are and that is or at least should be bulk hardware manufacturers. Perhaps Michael Dell can breath some of this back into Dell - I sure hope so.

    Dell - where did your online / direct sales only model go? Why compete with yourself with resellers? What happened to the original affordable quality? Why do I get reseat CPU errors on £8k servers?! Why do our Desktops PSUs and GPUs die so quickly?

    HP - What truly innovative tech have you created yourself recently? Why kill of Palm? Oops you lost a few £billion

    Like them or loath them though (I work with both on a daily basis) kit would not be cheap as it is without them, but I wonder is cheap really worth the cost? I think I wandered subject. But anyway good luck Dell and I hope things get better

  10. Nolveys
    Thumb Up

    Mission Accomplished

    I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the DOJ and Justice Jackson for excellent handling of the Microsoft antitrust proceedings and the application of the settled upon remedies. Due to your outstanding achievements in the field of excellence we will never again have to worry about Microsoft stifling competition through unfair, immoral and downright illegal business practices.

  11. Spoddyhalfwit

    Did this Eadon fellow witness his parents being murdered by Microsoft? He is rather obsessed.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @Spoddyhalfwit

      I've decided he's just trolling and stopped responding to him or even downvoting him any more. (Anything he says that is actually right is generally what's been said by everyone else for years, so doesn't really merit an upvote.) Happy to vote on/dicsuss posts about him, though. He's kind of reassuring, in a couple of ways. i) No matter how bad things look, you could be as angry as Eadon (and I thought *I* was bad in that regard. He seems to be sniper rifle in clock tower material.) ii) If you see an article about Microsoft, when he posts you know the world is ticking along OK. OK, bringing MS into discussions about astronomy, for example, is a bit out there but - hey, that's our Eadon!

      On a more serious and charitable note, perhaps he has Aspergers? Obsession with one particular subject, serious social deficiencies ...

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