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Technology Stocks : Dell Technologies Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (144169)	10/8/1999 10:08:00 AM
From: OLDTRADER	Respond to of 176387

RE:Patrick-keep it up -to dream is elegant.wbm

To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (144169)	10/8/1999 10:08:00 AM
From: Patricia Walton	Respond to of 176387

Patrick, I think we're on the same page...:0) I'm beginning to feel like Kemble in some ways. I live in Texas and I have been "punched" SERIOUSLY (Kemble-ism)concerning the possibility of a merger. I have been hearing this for months, and I do believe it is in the cards. Of course, like you stated, if it does come to pass, it might be in incremental stages. Patsy

To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (144169)	10/8/1999 11:05:00 AM
From: Sig	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 176387

Pat Re IBM/Dell Ties getting much stronger now. Dell becomes the "Name" in P/C's and servers. IBM retains the big box business but perhaps Dell builds them or IBM adapts Dell efficiencies to building them. Then with Dell expanding production so fast needs greater service support but does not care to invest heavy dollars in that area 'people' area when IBM already covers the world. The result is a win-win situation as far a business is concerned with the advantage going to Dell as far as stock price appreciation, since IBM has a beaurocracy to contend with so expect some slimming there. Am not sure whether they need a name change or stock swap in the typical modern manner. Each name is powerful by itself Dell representing a younger, progressing, modern Web-oriented efficient organization will have to be retained somewhere. With the advent of video conferences and direct access to each companies products and design data the four companies, Dell, Intel, Microsoft, and IBM should be able to work together without everyone living in the same building. Some PR artist may be trying to figure out how to present the Dell/IBM combo to the world thru advertising and show a greater connectedness, but at this time Dell uses several other service organizations also. Summary: If this affair with IBM progresses to a public church wedding we could expect a major jolt in Dells price, but that won't stop Dell from fooling around in other areas-China, Brazil, Australia?? Whos next? Sig

To: Patrick E.McDaniel who wrote (144169)	10/8/1999 11:13:00 AM
From: rudedog	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 176387

Patrick - Unfortunately, the better culture does not often win in a merger with a numerically larger orgainization. IBM people would outnumber DELL people about 10 to 1 and the DELL culture would be subsumed by IBM bureaucrats. Look at EDS, which had a very strong and dynamic culture of over 6,000 employees, when they were bought by GM, which at the time had 70,000 computer staffers. Roger Smith's intent was to have the EDS culture "infect" the GM legions but the reverse happened - the EDS people quickly lost their execution focus and within a few years, no one could find any vestige of the old EDS. Another similar story is CPQ and DEC - the DEC staffers outnumbered the CPQ staffers by 5 to 1 and in today's CPQ, the unfocused failure prone DEC culture seems to be prevailing over the tight, hard-driving CPQ culture. Before the merger, CPQ generated well over a million dollars per employee while DEC was at about $200K per employee, a huge difference in productivity. No question that DEC had a lot of good technology but they had a lot of useless stuff too and the old CPQ ethic of sort out what works and execute on it has been replaced by the DEC method of "all you can eat product smorgasbord". Another example of the weaker but numerically superior culture subsuming the more dynamic one. I think that an IBM / DELL merger would have exactly the same effect - the good people would leave, and the rest would learn to survive in the larger world of IBM. Net result would be maybe a slight boost for IBM and the destruction of one of the best and most focused cultures in the technology business.