Michael Dell: The Making of an American Oligarch

[douglas9]

Before he became the 15th-richest American, Michael Dell was hailed as a corporate wunderkind. His eponymous computer company's "dazzlingly efficient" factory in Austin, Texas, "may be the best hope of keeping blue-collar jobs in the United States," proclaimed the New York Times in 2004. Recently, Dell Inc. has been better known for gobbling up federal contracts and pulling financial shenanigans to line its executives' pockets—all while exploiting tax loopholes, outsourcing production, and laying off American workers.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/michael-dell-outsourcing-jobs-timeline?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+motherjones%2Fmain+%28MotherJones.com+Main+Article+Feed%29

[hobbit709]

1. A friend of mine knew him back then.

He was an asshole then too. now he's an asshole with $5 billion but he's still an asshole.

[sonias]

2. That's a republican asshole to you

We have our share of idiots and assholes too, but the R kind is always much more miserly and hypocritical and they're always in it for themselves. Always about making themselves rich at someone else's expense.

:puke:

[thanks_imjustlurking]

3. Not to mention screwing your customers.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A six-year-old hardware meltdown that plagued millions of computers is coming back to haunt Dell.

From 2003 to 2005, Dell sold computers with faulty capacitors that allegedly caused most motherboards on two Dell Optiplex models to break, rendering the computers useless. Dell was aware of the issue, according to recently unsealed court documents from a pending lawsuit, yet continued to sell the computers anyway.

Though the juiciest details are still sealed by the court, several internal company e-mails show that Dell instructed its sales staff to downplay the malfunctions to customers.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/01/technology/dell_lawsuit/

[hobbit709]

4. All of the companies were selling boards with bad caps.

The bad caps came from a factory in Japan at the time. Dell was just the worst offender in terms of making good on them. But then, that was typical of Dell's business MO.

[thanks_imjustlurking]

5. Yep, as in they were trying to hide it.

Like a cat hiding its doo on a tile floor. How stupid do they think we are?