Dell Struggling With Turnaround, Turns to M&A

Dell’s Founder & CEO, Michael Dell, told Bloomberg News that he plans to make strategic aquisitions to help bolster his turnaround plan.

Dell, who returned to run Dell back in 2007, has struggled to raise Dell’s stock price. He has made significant changes at the company, first by looking to fix its expense line by making deep staff cuts around the world. In addition, he has restructured its consumer business and shifted its focus towards traditional retail and away from its traditional “Direct” to the customer channel.

The company has made a few small acquisitions since his return to the company. Its spent $1.4B on the purchase of storage technology company EqualLogic and also hired David L, Johnson, IBM’s M&A Lead in late 2008 in what many assumed was a precursor to an expanded M&A strategy. Johnson’s first deal occurred last week with Dell’s $3.9B purchase of I/T services firm Perot Systems, based in Dallas, TX.