Boy Dell was wrong

October 6, 1997, Jai Singh writing in CNET News.com:

When it comes to the state of Apple Computer, everyone has an opinion.
…
[T]he CEO of competitor Dell Computer added his voice to the chorus when asked what could be done to fix the Mac maker. His solution was a drastic one.

"What would I do? I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Michael Dell said before a crowd of several thousand IT executives.

August 9, 2011, John Paczkowski writing in All Things Digital:

A new milestone for Apple. The company briefly overtook Exxon Mobil as the world’s most valuable company Tuesday, edging past it after days volatile stock market trading. Earlier today Apple’s market cap rose to $341.5 billion, just above Exxon’s $341.4 billion for a few moments before slipping back down again. …

An astonishing achievement for a company whose market cap bottomed out at $630.9 million back in 1982.

Incidentally, at $341.5 billion, Apple’s market cap is more than twelve times that of Dell’s $26.54 billion.

Why aren’t the Dell shareholders rioting with pitchforks in Round Rock? They’ve lost more than 70% of their investment since January 2000 and more than half of the value of the stock in mid-2008. Meanwhile, Apple stock is 5x its 2008 peak and 14x its price in early 2000.