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It's Official Dell Acquired Alienware 361

Posted by samzenpus from the you're-going-to-love-the-new-alien-kid dept.
robyn217 writes "Dell just confirmed today that it had acquired boutique PC vendor Alienware. Alienware's Nelson Gonzalez said that his company will continue on with its own brand, design, sales and marketing, and support, though, so Alienware isn't going anywhere just yet. Gonzalez also said that Alienware PCs would not carry a Dell logo, and that he would report directly to Jim Schneider, Dell's chief financial officer. "I think that you'll find it very hard to find the Dell name on the [Alienware] web site," he said." The rumor is now fact.
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It's Official Dell Acquired Alienware More

It's Official Dell Acquired Alienware

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  • The Alienware slogan... (Score:5, Funny)

    by WilliamSChips ( 793741 ) <`moc.liamg' `ta' `ytinifni.lluf'> on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:11PM (#14977460) Journal
    "Nobody builds their own Ferrari." I wouldn't really trust Honda to build my Ferrari...

  • AMD? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Aardpig ( 622459 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:11PM (#14977462)
    I wonder whether Alienware machines will continue to use AMD chips, or whether pressure on Dell from Intel will lead to their gradual phasing out. If the latter, then I can't see Alienware hanging on to the bleeding-edge gaming market...

    • Re:AMD? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by knapper_tech ( 813569 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:39PM (#14977630)
      In other news, Alienware has aquired Dell's entire server devision and will ship four-way and two-way opteron systems within a few weeks.

      I don't think Dell would go so far out of their way to diversify their offerings just so they could throw it all away. If Dell wanted to sell Intel only, they had everything they needed already, and there would have been no point in the aquisition.
    • Now, Dell can have a niche brand that uses AMD processors for anyone who demands them, while Dell can continue to sell Intel-only systems and keep Intel happy.

      Oh, and Dell... I don't believe that selling bare AMD processors on your website that cannot be put in any motherboards you sell is a convincing way to prove that you're not an exclusively Intel shop.

  • That explains the $10,000 PC (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Err, I mean $9930 PC [reghardware.co.uk].

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:13PM (#14977481)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • It's Official Dell Acquired Alienware (Score:4, Funny)

    by willith ( 218835 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:14PM (#14977490) Homepage
    Perhaps while Dell is at it, they can acquire a colon?

  • yeah..no change. right. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportlandNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:14PM (#14977491) Homepage Journal
    Oh, you communicate directly to the CFO. Well then, they couldn't just make you put there name on it anyways.

    Unless you have a contract that states dells name won't appear, and thatm hey won't influence the various aspects of Alienware, they will.

    The IT world is littered with the dried up husks of good companies that were bought and told nothing would change.

  • What they're really thinking... (Score:5, Funny)

    by toucci ( 834101 ) * on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:18PM (#14977512) Journal
    With Dell's backing, hardware costs will go down and translate into even higher profit margins!

  • Found it! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:20PM (#14977529)
    "'I think that you'll find it very hard to find the Dell name on the [Alienware] web site,' he said."

    Google says: Results 1 - 91 of about 209 from alienware.com for dell. (0.29 seconds)

    Not so hard.

  • that strange sound you hear... (Score:3, Funny)

    by thatoneguy_jm ( 917104 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:20PM (#14977531)
    ...is the sound of millions of fanboys drawing in breath to yell "SELLOUTS!"

  • It's funny, laugh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Umbral Blot ( 737704 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:20PM (#14977533) Homepage
    In my opinion Alienware sells overpriced hardware that simply looks cooler because of their case mods. I think the typical Alienware buyer thinks that this makes them oh-so-much better than someone who buys a Dell, I mean they don't even come standard with neon lights. I am going to enjoy asking Alienware customers how their Dell is doing. Lets see them try and brag about a Dell computer, with a straight face.

  • propietarity anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jollyroger1210 ( 933226 ) <jollyroger1210NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:21PM (#14977536) Homepage Journal
    Dell is known for using custom, (aka propietary) parts, which makes me wonder, will Alienware begin to use them to? I hope not.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • This is a win for AMD! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the_humeister ( 922869 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:22PM (#14977542)
    Alienware sells computers with AMD processors. By extension, Dell is selling AMD-based machines!
    • Maybe Dell wants to be in a position to leverage it's sales base such that they can start to ease the Intel pressure on them?

      Well, I'm supposing that Dell WON'T remove AlienWare's name and look and feel.

      BTW, didn't some high-level guy from Dell disavow or say there was no substantiation to the rumor? I love it when these people, thinking they can manipulate stock prices, public sentiment, and control the rumor mill just flat out LIE as if that will improve their image, too... It's ONE thing to say, "we're i

  • Support stays (Score:5, Funny)

    by binaryspiral ( 784263 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:24PM (#14977554)
    Although Dell's acquisition was widely anticipated, Alienware chief executive Nelson Gonzalez said that his company will remain a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dell, continuing its own brand, design, sales and marketing, and support.

    Shucks, and I wanted to drop $4,000 on a new Alienware and talk to "Roger" from "Ohio" who was so nice to me when I owned my last Dell. While we rebooted the machine for the third time he asked me how the Packers were doing in the world series.

    Nice fellows, those Dell support people... ye'sir.

  • That's nothing... (Score:5, Funny)

    by tktk ( 540564 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:32PM (#14977587)
    I can get a completely maxed out Apple G5 desktop for $23,476.

    Think about the joke before you mod me down.

  • Hard to find? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by PhunkySchtuff ( 208108 ) <kai@automatic[ ]om.au ['a.c' in gap]> on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @09:37PM (#14977620) Homepage
    Hard to find the word Dell on their site?
    It's there over 130 times!
    Just check Google [google.com]
  • Lets see, I called Dell about a laptop sent in for depot repair a week ago: 2 hrs on the phone in two calls that got dropped twice. (Boring detail: The first accented voice dropped the call after 1/2 hr (on hold). The second stated I needed to speak to Customer Support (xfer, 1/2 hr #2). The Next person said: No record of that machine showing up: Lets see if we can find the waybill number from Delayed or Hellishly Late (DHL), call droped after another 45 minutes.)

    Now we can get our calls outsourced to Alien
  • Both company's support sucks. Dell needs to rectify that before going out and buying another customer service nightmare.

  • So what is the point? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Danathar ( 267989 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @10:23PM (#14977859) Journal
    If Alienware is going to be a wholly owned subsiderary of Dell and no Dell logos or associations will be seen with Alienware products or services, then what is the point?

    Is dell just looking to send engineers over to Alienware to learn how to make gaming PCs?
    • Dude, I'm pretty sure the point is to make money.
    • Dell gets to leverage Alienware's upstream distribution partners (Tyan, Antec, Arima, etc.). This allows them to easily pursue alternate server and workstation designs than the existing Quanta/Foxconn stuff and also get with other memory/HD vendors, etc.
      They also get their customer portfolio (think: upgrades). It also gets a "high-end" brand to associate with its high-margin products (to compete with Apple).
  • Dellianware Alienellware Dalienware
  • Dell is suddenly a large AMD customer, with all the experience of working with AMD at a volume level. This is just a beginning of better price/performance ratios from Dell, I hope.

  • EA buys Origin (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Taulin ( 569009 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @11:01PM (#14977992) Homepage Journal
    I still remember when EA bought Origin. Garriot was quoted saying that Origin will still have control over their games and EA will just allow them to make bigger and better games with a wider distribution. I remember this because I remember it happened around the time Ultima 7 came out, and it worried me. While I never bought an Alienware box, these statements seem similar. As mentioned by others, Dell's hand will be there pushing in one direction or another. Maybe I am just jaded because my programming job at Dell was outsourced to a $5/hour Brazilian, but Dell is evil. No body smiled at work, and was always worried about loosing their jobs. Evil biz practices, like the Printer fiasco, and all of that makes me avoid Dell products.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @11:40PM (#14978164)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • So we have Alienware being fast and unreliable, combined with Dell who's boxes are slow and unreliable (Dell's laptops are pure junk). Someone wake me up from this nightmare, please! No good can come from this union.

  • the obvious reason ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bassman59 ( 519820 ) <andy&latke,net> on Wednesday March 22, 2006 @11:50PM (#14978214) Homepage
    Alienware's founders decided it was time to cash out. Smart move.

  • What the...??? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Mr. Freeman ( 933986 )
    "Nelson Gonzalez said that his company will continue on with its own brand, design, sales and marketing, and support, though, so Alienware isn't going anywhere just yet. Gonzalez also said that Alienware PCs would not carry a Dell logo"

    Then what the heck is dell in charge of? Profit taking?
    "he would report directly to Jim Schneider, Dell's chief financial officer."

    Oh.

  • It's Offical (Score:3, Informative)

    by dspisak ( 257340 ) on Thursday March 23, 2006 @01:36AM (#14978663)
    We don't care.

  • What Dell gets out of it (Score:4, Insightful)

    by gzearfoss ( 829360 ) on Thursday March 23, 2006 @01:52AM (#14978726)
    I've seen a number of comments questioning what Dell or Alienware gets out of this deal, if the two 'brands' remain effectively distinct. They both get a number of things out of it:
    1) They get an existing, well-known high-end brand. Rather than trying to make a new high-end brand, which would require major expenses as well as a large change in public opinion. Would you want to buy a $4.00 coffee if it was sold under the, say, Maxwell House brand name? No offense to Maxwell House, but people don't necessarily see them as a high-end brand of coffee. They could try to start their own premium brand, and advertise it as such, but it still would bear the name of Maxwell House. If they would buy Starbucks and kept it mostly separate, they would be able to have an instant presence in the high-end market without having to carve out a niche from the existing brands.
    2) They get to consolidate portions of the infrastructure. If a company prides itself on its products, it still has other, less glamorous departments, such as distribution. Though the existing distribution may need to expand to handle the additional load, it still would be smaller than the two individual networks. Note that distribution is used here as an example; since they ship using carrier companies, they probably don't have their own distribution networks. The concept may still hold true for certain other departments, though.
    3) Alienware gets the benefit of Dell and their extensive advertising network. Where did you first hear about Alienware? Was it from an ad in a newspaper? A commercial on TV? What's more likely is that you heard about them from more specialized advertising, or from other techno-geeks. However, if Dell can convince the general public that "Hey! You're upgrading to the finer things in life - a faster car, a bigger TV - why not get a high-end computer too?" As a result, the Alienware brand gets more commonly known as a high-end computer brand, and sells more units.
    4) Alienware gets the benefit of being able to expand more and eliminate bottlenecks in service. If they're waiting until there's money in the budget to expand the repair center, there are probably three or four other departments that can also use the increased budget. But if Dell is willing to put some money into Alienware, and let them smooth out the wrinkles in service, then they'll be able to expand the repair center, upgrade the assembly line, and train more workers all at once.
    So as long as Dell keeps their promise to let Alienware continue on with its own brand, design, sales and marketing, and support, it looks like the beginning of a highly profitable relationship.

  • Dell's new slogan (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gary Destruction ( 683101 ) on Thursday March 23, 2006 @02:35AM (#14978836) Journal
    Dude, you're getting abducted.

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