Icahn, SAM to give MickeyD the boot if they take over Dell

If Michael Dell loses control of the eponymous company, he'll be able to cash in his shares for something like $10-20 billion. So I doubt he'll be visiting his local job center in the near future.

"In 1997, shortly after Mr. Jobs returned to Apple, the company he helped start in 1976, Dell's founder and chairman, Michael S. Dell, was asked at a technology conference what might be done to fix Apple, then deeply troubled financially.

"What would I do?" Mr. Dell said to an audience of several thousand information technology managers. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."

Well....Mikey....looks like you will have the chance to do that now for your own company....pity you won't be there to see it happen.

Ironic.

I don't like Michael Dull

...by Icahn is being a bully and arse. I hope he is not successful in changing the board or getting his way with Dull.

Yes, dull, dull

Only 8 comments, that's how Dull this whole business about Dull is.

If the article was about a revolutionary user interface or the latest tweak of a fondling thing we'd be at 88 comments in no time at all.

FWIW, I think Mr Dell should be let get on with his plan (I believe he thinks he can do a Jobsian job on Dell but then he hasn't got the balls to do it while facing 'The Street' every 12 weeks).

iCan simply sees an opportunity to make money, isn't that the American way?

One more PC maker for the pile of dead ones?

Mr Dell managed to keep the company from being killed by the supply chain issues with bad components many years ago. That was amazing, it should have killed the company. Things keep conspiring against Dell but he keeps the company flying despite it all. I think Mr Dell has the right idea here too. Icahn would only scrap the company adding it to a growing list of gone X86 PC computer makers, it's almost as if there's a plan afoot to do just that sometimes. Of course nothing would be more pleasing to the Blue Bloods of the world to remove the power of the PC from all us useless eaters hands, it seems we keep using them to stay ahead of their disinformation media these days.

How the sharks feed

For a candid look at how Icahn et similis work, read Dan Raviv's 2004 book "Comic Wars" over the fight to control Marvel Comics and the Spider Man(tm) trademark.

excerpt from the Library Journal editorial review:

The major story is of the battle for control waged by Ronald Perelman, who bought Marvel in the late 1980s, and Carl Icahn, who began buying Marvel bonds in an effort to take over the company. Ironically, neither Perelman nor Ichan was ever interested in comics (both bragged that they never looked at the product); rather, they were obsessed with profit and personal vendetta. A parallel story deals with Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad, two entrepreneurs with Toy Biz who had a significant interest in Marvel, its characters, and further sustaining the enterprise over the long term. While the era and the situations differ, Comic Wars is in the vein of The White Sharks of Wall Street.

It's worth noting that Marvel had had to enter bankruptcy during this tussle; when the Bankruptcy Judge was asked to protect holders of one Marvel bond issue, his acid rejoinder on the consequences of buying bonds whose offer said they were not going to be repaid was a real classic. I'd quote it if I could find my copy of the book.

http://www.amazon.com/Comic-Wars-Marvels-Battle-Survival/dp/0785116060