| Dell is an American multinational computer technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services, and is owned by its parent company of Dell Technologies. Founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest technology corporations in the world, employing more than 165,000 people in the U.S. and around the world.
Dell traces its origins to 1984, when Michael Dell created Dell Computer Corporation, which at the time did business as PC's Limited, while a student of the University of Texas at Austin. The dorm-room headquartered company sold IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components.
In 1986, Michael Dell brought in Lee Walker, a 51-year-old venture capitalist, as president and chief operating officer, to serve as Dell's mentor and implement Dell's ideas for growing the company. Walker was also instrumental in recruiting members to the board of directors when the company went public in 1988.
In 1993, to complement its own direct sales channel Dell planned to sell PCs at big-box retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, which would have brought in an additional $125 million in annual revenue. Bain consultant Kevin Rollins persuaded Michael Dell to pull out of these deals, believing they would be money losers in the long run.
In 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers. Chairman and CEO Michael Dell had repeatedly blocked President and COO Kevin Rollins's attempt to lessen the company's heavy dependency on PCs, which Rollins wanted to fix by acquiring EMC Corporation.
In July 2018, Dell announced intentions to become a publicly traded company again by paying $21.7 billion in both cash and stock to buy back shares from its stake in VMware.
Its rank is 34th on the Fortune 500 currently. It is the world's 3rd largest personal computer vendor by unit sales as of January 2021, following Lenovo and HP Inc..
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