Dell Inc. Founder Michael Dell has clarified his comment about Apple which was made 15 years back. Michael Dell said that he was taken massively out of context.

Michael Dell had made an infamous statement “I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders” 14 years ago when Apple was trading at $17 a share.

Lot of discussions about his infamous statement were happening on various social media sites as recently he made Dell private.



Andrew McAfee, Principal Research Scientist at MIT Center for Digital Business had posted this comment on his Google Plus page.

In 1997 Michael Dell said that if he were in charge of Apple he’d “shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” Today, Apple is the world’s most valuable company. My two conclusions from this:

1. Great products, great platforms, and visionary leaders = a powerful combination.

2. The high tech industries are the most dynamic the world has ever seen.

For this post, Michael Dell had made below reply and shared the post with the comment “See my comments in here for those who like to repeat this from 16 years ago…”

Huge congratulations to Apple on all their success but my comment was widely repeated was taken massively out of context. Anyone who was there in person and heard the entire conversation in context would know that. As the founder and CEO of Dell I do not think about what I would do if I were running another company, do not offer advice for other companies and did not think about it a decade and a half ago.

Andrew McAfee didn’t agree with Michael Dell’s reply. He asked Dell below question by referring his comments about HP restructuring in 2011.

do you draw a distinction between commenting on other companies’ moves (your 2011 comments on HP) and saying what you’d do if you were their CEO (your 1997 comments on Apple)?﻿

Previously Michael Dell had written an open letter to the Dell Customers about the Dell buyout.

To Our Customers,

The agreement to take Dell private represents an exciting new chapter for our company and for you, our customers. As always, our unwavering focus is on delivering a fantastic customer experience and creating value for your organization. We believe that our proposed new ownership will provide long-term support to help Dell innovate, invest for growth and accelerate our transformation strategy. We’ll have the flexibility to continue organic and inorganic investment and drive industry-leading innovation.

We’ve made solid progress over the past few years. Our leadership and our strategic execution have been consistent, as we’ve built a comprehensive portfolio to help you succeed. Secure, easy to manage, end-to-end solutions from the cloud to the data center to devices remain at the core of our value proposition to you. I am honored to continue serving as chairman and CEO of Dell and very much appreciate the trust you’ve placed in us. We recognize that ours is a highly competitive industry. Our commitment to you is to keep earning that trust every day. I am confident we are making the right decisions to position Dell, our customers and employees for long-term success. There is much more we can accomplish together. With warm regards, Michael Dell

Read here Motivational Quotes of Michael Dell.