DailyTech - Dell CEO Kevin Rollins Resigns

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IT Dell CEO Kevin Rollins Resigns
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - January 31, 2007 7:00 PM

12 comment(s) - last by goku.. on Feb 1 at 5:50 PM

Kevin Rollins, now ex-CEO of Dell Inc.

Kevin Rollins says farewell to his role as CEO of Dell Inc.

In a surprise move, Kevin Rollins today resigned his position as CEO of Dell Inc. Overnight upper-echelon management changes at Fortune 500 companies are not typical occurrences.

Michael Dell, founder of Dell, will re-assume the role of CEO and retain his duties as Chairman of the Board. In 2004, Dell stepped down as CEO and was replaced by Rollins. Management at Dell has come full circle. Since Rollins stepped into position as CEO, Michael Dell has been putting his hands into various areas of Dell such as marketing, operations, mergers and other areas where he was previously preoccupied doing other things.

“Dell has tremendous opportunities ahead of it,” said Mr. Dell. “I am enthusiastic about Dell 2.0, which includes our plan to provide the best customer experience, build a strong global services business and ensure our products deliver the best long-term customer value,” said Dell in a statement. Rollins however, did not provide a statement about his reasons for stepping down.

Since Rollins stepped up to his role as CEO, Dell Inc. has performed quite well, expanding into many areas such as professional services. Dell also put its hands into the enthusiast level gaming market, buying customized gaming computer manufacturer Alienware in early 2006. Since then Dell has marketed its own line of gaming desktops and notebooks as well as kept the Alienware brand alive and operating independently.

Earlier this year Dell lost its title as the largest PC shipment champion to Hewlett-Packard. Interestingly, HP also purchased Alienware rival Voodoo PC near the end of 2006, pitting both it and Dell squarely head-to-head in the enthusiast market.

“Kevin has been a great business partner and friend. He has made significant contributions to our business over the past ten years. I wish him much success in the future,” said Dell. Rollins did not indicated where he was heading to or whether or not he would still have a day-to-day impact on Dell's operations.

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About time!

By ChipDude on 1/31/2007 10:46:14 PM , Rating: 4

Its been clear to all outside that Dell has been lost, its always funny why it takes the insides so long to see the obvious.

Times are really different and I question whether Dell is the right man in the current situation. I wonder if Hurd is looking for another feather in his cap.

I wonder when AMD and INTEL get a clue to their leadership too.

RE: About time!

By Targon on 2/1/2007 7:18:36 AM , Rating: 3

AMD has been doing VERY well over the past several years. It's not an issue with the leadership of a company when their competition uses superior financial resources to come up with a better product.

The purchase of ATI is a part of a long-view look at the industry and the direction things are moving in at AMD. If/when K8L allows AMD to catch back up or move ahead of Intel in terms of performance, then you won't be faulting the AMD leadership, will you?

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RE: About time!

By stromgald on 2/1/2007 12:33:38 PM , Rating: 2

How is this even an AMD vs. Intel issue? He's questioning the leadership of both AMD and Intel along with Dell. Your immediate defense of AMD with little regard to the post you replied to seems to be a clear indication that you a) didn't read or b) are extremely biased in support of AMD.

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Use MS Word!

By aurareturn on 1/31/2007 10:12:32 PM , Rating: 2

Maybe these editors should use MS Word and use the grammar/spell checker before posting.

It's quite embarrassing.

RE: Use MS Word!

By tmarat on 2/1/2007 3:20:52 AM , Rating: 2

Thats called nitpicking

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RE: Use MS Word!

By Fanon on 2/1/2007 9:22:34 AM , Rating: 4

As an author, I disagree.

If any of my published text has errors and flaws, it reflects poorly on my editor, my publisher, and me. It is possible to lose readers because of these simple errors. All it takes is a little extra effort to find these errors and fix them.

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...

By codeThug on 2/1/2007 12:47:12 AM , Rating: 2

The Dell gravy train is over.

RE: ...

By catan on 2/1/2007 11:11:13 AM , Rating: 2

Do remember that Dell is a predominantly Commercial market player...hopefully in 2008 when businesses start buying Core 2 Duo, Vista et. al. with vengeance...dell might see a bounce back.

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Typo

By JBird7986 on 1/31/2007 9:52:57 PM , Rating: 2

"says goodbye two his role"?

RE: Typo

By Zirconium on 1/31/2007 10:09:57 PM , Rating: 1

I had to read that line three times to make sure I wasn't hallucinating (it has been a looooooong woot-off). I would have skipped over it were it not bold and in the first sentence.

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stock back dating anyone?

By hellokeith on 2/1/2007 12:40:49 AM , Rating: 2

Could be a preemptive move on Dell's (the company) part with all the stock back-dating troubles going around.

HA!

By goku on 2/1/2007 5:50:37 PM , Rating: 2

Funny, I had no idea that michael dell wasn't the CEO of dell since '04, hmm thats make sense... The reason I say that is because I noticed a disproportionate number of dell laptops made from '04 and on have severe hardware issues/failures while laptops from '03 and back don't have any/as many from what I know. (Yes that even includes models that were made from '03 through '04 as well). Funny, guess it explains it..