Michael Positions to Drive Dell Again

Sitting in his college dorm room some 23 years back, Michael Dell shaped one of the world’s biggest PC companies and today he stands with the authority to build again. Dell has ousted his successor, Kevin Rollins and will again take over as the chief executive officer to re-erect his business after it was reported that quarterly results will again miss targets.

“It's not going to be easy,” said Christopher Meeker, an analyst at Farr Miller & Washington LLC in Washington, which owns 350,000 Dell shares. “I'm not sure if it's harder to rebuild a company with $40 to $50 billion in revenue than start a company in your dorm room, but the economics are very different now.”

Kevin Rollins, 54, has also bowed out from the board of directors. A Dell spokesman refused to elaborate on whether Rollins was asked to resign by the board but said that the board of directors was involved in his decision to resign from the company.

"It's surprising. Rollins had the confidence of [Michael] Dell, but when you look at the numbers you can see why [Dell has retaken the helm]", said Richard Shim, an analyst at IDC.

The Round Rock, Texas-based Company has faced a rough time under Rollins as it lost the PC market lead to Hewlett-Packard in the second half of 2006. Dell watched its core business shrink as it got entangled in accounting problems that caused the company to miss financial filing deadlines.

As Michael Dell once more positions to take the wheel of the PC Company, he would face another challenge of repairing its image with the U.S. consumers driving PC market growth as poor customer service led them to discard the brand.

"Kevin has been a great business partner and friend," Dell said of the now ex-CEO. "He has made significant contributions to our business over the past 10 years. I wish him much success in the future."