DELL INC. was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell at age 19 while he was a student living in a dormitory at the University of Texas. As a college freshman, he bought personal computers
(PCs) from the excess inventory of local retailers, added features such as more memory and disk drives, and sold them out of the trunk of his car. He withdrew $1,000 in personal savings, used his car as collateral for a bank loan, hired a few friends, and placed ads in the local newspaper offering computers at 10%–15% below retail price. Soon he was selling
$50,000 worth of PCs a month to local businesses. Sales during the first year reached
$600,000 and doubled almost every year thereafter. After his freshman year, Dell left school to run the business full time.
Michael Dell began assembling his own computers in 1985 and marketed them through ads in computer trade publications. Two years later, his company witnessed tremendous change: It launched its first catalog, initiated a field sales force to reach large corporate accounts, went public, changed its name from PCs Limited to Dell Computer Corporation, and established its first international subsidiary in Britain. Michael Dell was selected “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Inc. in 1989, “Man of the Year” by PC Magazine in 1992, and “CEO of the Year” by Financial World in 1993. In 1992, the company was included for the first time among the Fortune 500 roster of the world’s largest companies.
By 1995, with sales of nearly $3.5 billion, the company was the world’s leading direct marketer of personal computers and one of the top five PC vendors in the world. In 1996, Dell supplemented its direct mail and telephone sales by offering its PCs via the Internet at dell.com.
By 2001, Dell ranked first in global market share and number one in the United States for shipments of standard Intel architecture servers. The company