Quiz Of The Week: Dell Reborn?

Dell is not like its older brothers in the computing world. In the week that a group led by founder Michael Dell bought the firm and took it private, our quiz gives you a chance to enjoy its singular story.

HP and IBM have a long history, and came out of the old world of electronics design, but Dell emerged when making a PC had become a matter of using the best components trimming the margins and shipping it quickly. Not so much a technology whizz as a supply chain guru, then.

The road to Dell

Dell’s beginning, in Michael Dell’s student dorm, is well known. People would call by for memory upgrades and custom PCs, and Dell eventually decided to design, build and sell his own machines, rapidly becoming a successful enterprise, quickly listing on the stock exchange and entering the Fortune 500.

Along the way, the company has struggled to be taken seriously for its technology – but has manically acquired the best players in fields such as storage, services and networking. That activity reached fruition this week, when Michael Del finally convinced venture capitalists not to treat his firm as a box-builder, but to give him space to become a full-strength systems and services player.

If it works, Dell could  be bigger than HP or IBM.

If it doesn’t, the venture backers will have no hesitation in stripping the company down and selling it off in parts. To be stripped back to its components would be the most ironic end for a company with Dell’s PC builder roots.

That’s the big picture. Now find out the detail:

Take the quiz!

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