So Dell is buying Perot systems for $3.9 billion. They are only eight years behind IBM's purchase of PWC and one year after HP bought EDS. When your core business becomes a commodity the standard strategy is to move into services - higher margins but a very different management model. Can Dell make the transition? It will be a challenge as they are far more a single product group company than either IBM or HP were. As Vinnie Mirchandani comments in his deal architect blog "At best Perot will allow Dell to gain a toehold in verticals Perot is good at. At worst, it will distract Dell from the big services chain optimization opportunity." Perot was never a player at the EDS, Accenture or IBM level so Dell is going to have to drive real organic growth in Perot's business if it is to drive any real scale or synergy.
It is interesting to compare Dell with Apple. Who was the favorite for glory back in 1997 when Dell was "THE" company and Apple (sans Jobs) was fading fast?
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