Dell

Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL), or simply Dell, is a computer hardware company in the United States, employing more than 106,700 people worldwide.

Dell develops, produces, supports and sells a wide variety of personal computers, servers, notebooks, storage devices, network switches, PDAs, software, peripherals and more. According to the 2005 Fortune 500 list, Dell is the 28th largest company in the United States (in sales). In 2005, Fortune Magazine ranked Dell No. 1 on its annual list of the most admired companies in the United States, taking over from WalMart, which held the place for two years. Its headquarters are in Round Rock, Texas in the United States.

The company opened its factory on Brazilian soil in the city of Eldorado do Sul in Rio Grande do Sul in November 1999. It also has a software development center based at the Tecnopuc pole, PUC-RS. In 2006 it was announced the construction of a new plant in the city of Hortolândia, in the interior of São Paulo. As of August 2007, Eldorado do Sul started to host only the administration and all production of (desktops, notebooks and servers) was transferred to Hortolândia.

Dell is the largest computer distribution company in the United States. It develops, manufactures, sells and services a number of personal computers, servers, data storages, software, peripherals, PDAs and much more. In 2006, Dell had 63,700 people working around the world and was the company that most manufactured computers on the planet. Its business model differs from other companies due to the low cost of operation and its direct sales system.

Michael Dell founded the company in 1984, at age 19, while studying at the University of Texas, United States.

History

Michael Dell founded the company in 1984 while still studying at the University of Texas in the United States. With only one thousand dollars, the company was founded with the name of PC's Limited. From his dorm, Dell began to assemble computers built from components in stock.

In 1985, the company manufactured its first computer with its own design, the Turbo PC, which contained Intel 8088 processors with the speed of 8 MHz. Dell then placed ads in American computer magazines for direct sale to consumers, as well as customization consumer configurations. With this, the final price of the computers was more competitive and the mode of purchase more convenient. With the company's success, Michael Dell dropped out of college to run his business full-time. In the first year alone, the company had $6 million gross of entry.

In 1986, they introduced the industry's fastest PC (a system based on 286, 12 MHz) at the Spring Comdex business show.

In 1987, PC's Limited also started operating in the United Kingdom. Over the next four years, 11 other countries were also reached. In 1988, the company adopted the name of Dell and its inflows increased from $130 million to $180 million on the first day of the public offering of its shares.

In the year 1990, Dell tried to sell its products indirectly through supermarkets and computer stores, but the success was very timid and the company turned its focus on its successful model of direct sales to the consumer. In 1992, Fortune magazine included Dell Computer Corporations in its list of the 500 largest companies in the world. In 1999, the company surpassed Compaq and became the largest PC vendor in the United States. From 2004 the company expanded its products for multimedia and entertainment with the launch of televisions, handhelds and digital jukeboxes. At the end of 2004, the company announced the construction of a new factory in the American state of North Carolina.

In February 2005, Dell ranked first in the "Most Admired Companies" ranking, published by Fortune magazine.

Organization

The board is composed of nine directors. Michael Dell, the company's founder, serves as chairman and chief executive officer. Other council members include Don Carty, Judy Lewent, Klaus Luft, Alex Mandl and Sam Nunn. The shareholders elect the nine members of the council at the meetings, and members of the council who do not obtain the majority of the votes must present a resignation to the council, which will later choose whether or not to accept the resignation. The board of directors usually creates five committees overseeing specific matters. These committees include the Audit Committee, which deals with accounting issues, including auditing and reporting, the Remuneration Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company, the Finance Committee, which deals with financial matters such as proposed mergers and acquisitions, the Governance and Nominating Committee, which deals with various corporate matters (including board appointment) and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which is trying to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws.

Controversy

The Institute of Physics of the Federal Fluminense University, based in the city of Niterói, RJ, exhibited, on the 13 of September of 2007, a document that Dell makes political demands to sell PCs. The company prohibited in the document, that researchers could produce knowledge that could be used by people linked to countries defined as "hostile to the United States." The countries cited in the document were: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria. In that context, the doctor in physics Paulo Gomes, a researcher at the institute linked to the Fluminense Federal University, said:

"I cannot sign a term like that. Here at the Institute, we collaborate with researchers from different countries. I myself have direct contact with Cuban scientists. If Dell forbids me to search freely, I will simply buy PCs from another integrator."

Although it may be surprising, the terms mentioned in the referenced article are standard export terms that US companies are required to fulfill by the government of their host country to do business in every country in the world. These can be found on various web sites of US-based multinationals both in terms of technology exports in embargoed countries and outside the high-tech industry and in terms of use for the practice of nuclear physics studies, a practice that is mentioned and commented on in Portuguese commercial law pages.