If Steve Jobs Were Alive Today...

If Steve Jobs were alive today, I’m sure he would be grinning from ear to ear at the news that Dell went private.  If you remember back in 1997, when Steve Jobs took over control of Apple as CEO, Michael Dell’s advice to Apple when asked what he would do:

What would I do? I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.

Steve Jobs responded by telling Apple employees:

Fuck Michael Dell.

Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners acquired Dell and took it private this morning for approximately $24.4 billion. As of right now, Apple’s market cap is $424.5 billion, that’s $400 billion more than Dell was acquired for.

Maybe Dell should you know — just give up and shut down the company?  I’m sure Mr. Dell wouldn’t appreciate someone telling him what he told Steve Jobs and Apple to do, especially after he told his staff that they are in an exciting new chapter of the company.

Somehow I doubt that Dell will have nearly the same success in its comeback that Apple has had.