The Biggest Acquisitions in Dell's History

There is no doubt that Dell is one of the biggest names in the DELL Studio XPS 1645 slot CD DVD Drivecomputer industry today. Dell as it is right now is a far cry from the part-time business that Michael Dell started out as a college kid right out of his dorm in 1984. In the course of 25 years, his company expanded into a billion-dollar enterprise with operations not just in the United States but in many other countries across the globe.Over time, Dell has forged partnerships and made mutually beneficial arrangements with other companies in the computer industry. Over the years, it has also bought a number of companies in an effort to broaden its interests.What are the biggest acquisitions in the history of Dell as a company? Here is a brief list.1. ConvergeNet Technologies, Inc. ConvergeNet Technologies, Inc. was a private company that specialized in storage networks. Dell bought the company in 1999 as part of its move to expand to storage networks and improve the future sales of its PowerVault product line.The price paid for ConvergeNet Technologies amounted to Dell's 6.9 million common stock sharesDELL Vostro 1000 CD DVD Drive with a total worth of US$340 million. As part of the deal, the president and CEO of ConvergeNet Technologies at the time became the vice president and general manager of the Dell storage system division. This division included people from both ConvergeNet and Dell's storage networks teams.2. EqualLogic. As part of its move to expand further to storage networks and related products, Dell acquired EqualLogic in 2007. This was after Dell failed to generate successful work with ConvergeNet Technologies after the latter's acquisition in 1999. EqualLogic was an IP storage network vendor that sold iSCSI storage appliances, founded in 2001.Dell bought EqualLogic for US$1.4 billion, an amount that business analysts considered staggering at the time. Despite the hefty price tag, analysts nonetheless lauded Dell for the purchase because of the innovations EqualLogic had introduced in the field of storage networks and virtualization.3. Perot Systems. Perot Systems, DELL Vostro 1220 CD DVD Drivea provider of information technology services and business solutions, is the latest and biggest acquisition that Dell made to date. The deal between Perot Systems and Dell was closed in late September 2009, with an unbelievable US$3.9 billion changing hands. The acquisition of Perot Systems is expected to bring Dell an additional US$8 billion per year.Dell bought Perot Systems in an effort to diversify its business outside of its core business of personal computer development. Analysts believe that this acquisition is a move on the part of Dell to catch up on flagging market shares. According to Wall Street reports, profits from personal computer development are on the downtrend and computer manufacturers are trying to look at newer IT business models to keep up.These are just three of the biggest acquisitions made by Dell over the years. Given that Dell remains to be among the most respected and profitable companies in the computer industry, there will likely be DELL Vostro 1310 slot CD DVD Drive other, bigger acquisitions on Dell's path in the future.