Michael Dell ousts Rollins, back in charge
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Stalled server growth, exploding batteries, sinking customer service After 30 months at the helm, Kevin Rollins is leaving Dell, following years of decline that might rival the great fall of the Roman empire. The disclosure came as the company said its fourth-quarter results fell below analysts' consensus estimates.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Stock in Dell was rising Monday on news thatÂ founder Michael Dell plans to remain as CEO for several years, trim the number of managers reporting directly to him, and eliminate bonuses. "We have a tough couple of quarters ahead. We didn't get here overnight, and we won't fix things overnight either," Dell wrote in a memo to employees on Friday. "Last year ... we had great efforts but not great results. This is disappointing, and it is unacceptable." Dell pointed to several problems with the company, including an overgrown bureaucracy and operating expenses that had grown too fast. "We have great people ... but we also have a new enemy: bureaucracy, which costs us money and slows us down. We created it, we subjected our people to it, and we have to fix it!" Dell said. "I am asking each of you to look across your organizations and eliminate redundancies." On Monday, a corporate spokeswoman confirmed the authenticity of the memo, which had been leaked to media over the weekend. The company has been buffeted in recent days by the resignation of CEO Kevin Rollins last Wednesday,Â Michael Dell announcing he would take over that job, and the accusation inÂ a lawsuit by investorsÂ on Friday that 15 top executives had garnered millions of dollars by selling their stock after propping up the company's faltering revenue with secret payments from Intel. Even before those blows landed, Dell was wobbling on a threat by the Nasdaq stock exchange to drop its stock unless the company files its overdue quarterly earnings reports.Â Dell has delayed filing those numbers for the past two terms as it struggles to satisfy an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its accounting practices. It is not yet clear if that investigation is related to the investors' charges that Dell hid payments by Intel in exchange for staying exclusively loyal to one brand of microprocessor in its PCs. When Michael Dell announced on Wednesday he would return to his position as CEO, the company was already in the midst of a reorganization plan that calls for $100 million in spending to improve the customer service practices that allow it to bypass retail stores with its famed "direct sales" business model. The company was also following Rollins' plan toÂ remake itself as "Dell 2.0,"Â trying to move beyond an enormousÂ notebook PC battery recall in August by focusing on industrial design, overseas factories, and a move to diversify its computers by using chips fromÂ AMD as well as those from Intel. In his Friday memo, Dell added new details to that strategy. He promised to turn around the company by focusing on the SMB sector, enterprise servers and storage, shorter design cycles for new products, and increased sales in emerging markets. He also made a few corporate changes, recalling Paul Bell from his job running the company's markets in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) to lead Dell's new Americas group, which includes the fast-growing SMB sector. Dell also created a "global operations" division to focus on manufacturing and procurement. "I remember what it's like to start a company. We're moving fast. There is no luxury of time. The competitors are fierce. The difference is this time we have many new assets and some hidden ones that can be brought out," he wrote. Dell did not describe the hidden assets he would use to rescue his company's prospects, but he hinted that Dell had enough resources to outspend its competition. AlthoughÂ Dell handed the title of world's largest PC vendor to HP this year, it is still a corporate colossus. "When I started back in 1984, it was just me. But now we are blessed to have an awesome team, many great assets, and $11 billion or so," Dell said. Â
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After Dell announced the Jan. 31 ouster of Chief Executive Kevin Rollins, the spin coming out of company headquarters in Round Rock, Tex., was loud, clear -- and predictable.
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Marmonti the man Dell has appointed David Marmonti as its new European boss.â¦
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Dell inc. said its former CEO Michael Dell is stepping back into that position, immediately replacing Kevin Rollins.
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Dell Inc.  has named former EDS  executive Steve Schuckenbrock to lead the computer maker's $5 billion a year global services organization, the latest in a string of new management hires.
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Solectron boss to head ops Battered Dell has moved to get its act together by drafing in a tech manufacturing veteran to oversee its global operations.â¦
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By Del Jones  Does Michael Dell signal a new era of the "comeback kid?"  When he was rehired late Wednesday, Dell became the first so-called boomerang CEO to be brought back to rescue a Fortune 500 company since 2005.
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Dell Inc. DELL.O Chairman Michael   Dell on Tuesday threw his support behind Chief Executive Kevin   Rollins and promised the computer maker was "working   diligently" to resolve its mounting problems.
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By Andrew D. Smith and Victor Godinez, The Dallas Morning News  Feb. 5--Each little cut only stung a bit, but the cuts kept coming -- and coming -- until they killed Kevin Rollins' career at Dell Inc.   Slowing sales growth. Falling profit margins. Customer complaints.
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(InfoWorld) - In the wake of Dell Inc.'s disclosure Monday that it might have to restate recent earnings statements because of discoveries made by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), company founder and chairman Michael Dell has defended his embattled chief executive, Kevin Rollins. "Kevin has done an outstanding job as chief executive," Dell told a crowd at the company's annual Technology Day meeting in New York Tuesday. "We run the company together, so if you want to blame somebody, you can blame me too." Dell will delay filing its quarterly Form 10-Q to the SEC until it answers questions raised by an SEC investigation into its accounting and financial reporting practices, the company said Monday. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has opened a separate investigation, involving documents filed from 2002 to the present. Both offices have raised the possibility of misstatements in prior period financial reports. Dell has already announced a preliminary earnings report for the second quarter, highlighted by a 51 percent drop in profit from the same period last year. Form 10-Q is the formal quarterly earnings report required of every publicly traded company. Asked whether he would heed calls from analysts and investors to resign, Rollins said he disagreed with the sentiment, then turned the podium over to his boss. "Any press speculation on that is completely useless. Feel free to speculate, but it's not going to happen," Dell said. "The CEO is chosen by the board of directors and the shareholders, and I'm the largest shareholder, so you can do the math." Dell and Rollins declined to give further details on the investigations, saying only that they were cooperating fully.
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Two weeks after he returned to run the computer company that bears his name, Michael S. Dell is making sweeping senior management changes.
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At Storage Networking World yesterday, Dell President and CEO Kevin Rollins talked about his company's relationship with EMC and the development of standards to help users manage complex storage-area networks.
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Dell Inc., battered by battery recalls and disappointing earnings, said yester day that chairman Michael Dell will return to run the company he built into one of the world's largest makers of personal computers.
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Dell Inc.  Chairman Michael  Dell on Tuesday threw his support behind Chief Executive Kevin  Rollins, while promising the computer maker was "working  diligently" to resolve its mounting problems.
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Dell Inc. will pay its former chief executive a severance package including $5 million in cash over the next two years, the computer maker disclosed Tuesday.  Kevin Rollins stepped down on Jan. 31 and was replaced by founder Michael Dell.
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(InfoWorld) - DellÂ on Thursday announced that Michael Cannon, the current president and CEO of electronics maker Solectron, will head a newly formed group that will oversee much of the company's operations, including manufacturing, procurement and suppliers. Cannon's appointment is the latest sign of a management shakeup underway at Dell, and underscores the seriousness of the challenges facing the company. Paul Tufano succeeds Cannon and will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for a permanent replacement. Once the PC industry's superstar, Dell has struggled in recent quarters. The companyÂ lost its title of world's largest PC vendorÂ to a resurgent Hewlett-Packard. The company also faces scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission intoÂ its accounting practices, which forced the company to delay filing its financial results for the second and third quarters of 2006. In addition, Dell last yearÂ recalled millions of defective laptop batteries, after they were determined to pose a potential fire risk to customers. In a bid to turn things around, Dell CEOÂ Kevin Rollins was replaced last monthÂ by Michael Dell, the company's chairman. Dell's return was accompanied by warnings that the company's financial results for the fourth quarter, to be announced March 1, will fall below analyst expectations. Cannon, who was president and CEO of hard-disk maker MaxtorÂ -- now part of Seagate TechnologyÂ -- before joining Solectron, will be responsible for improving Dell's manufacturing operations after he starts work on Feb, 26. His job includes the responsibility for opening factories that are closer to customers and improving the company's supply chain, Dell said, noting that plans are underway to add new factories in India, Poland and Brazil. The ultimate goal, according to Dell, is to improve product quality while shortening manufacturing times and reducing costs. Â