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>> How you feel about what's going on at HP right now.
LAUGHTER I mean, they're the number one in a business; they have been for some time. You guys have traded that baton every so often. Now it may be that you're counting the wrong thing now, which is, you were counting number of PCs or servers shipped, and as, you guys are both pivoting your businesses to service it. But you know, you've been battling these guys for 27 and a half years, so how does it feel to watch that unfold?
>> I think any uncertainty or confusion that exists is an opportunity, and it's a great opportunity for us to describe to our customers and potential customers our commitment to what we do and our investments that we're making inside our business. No question we've seen significant opportunities as a result of the confusion and uncertainty there. You think about the enterprise customers. These are customers that think about what's going to happen in a year or two, and you know, that sort of thing just erodes their confidence very quickly, so plenty of opportunity for us. Also with partners -- we have a hundred thousand partners now in our Partner Direct program. Really fast-growing, particularly recently.
>> It's Apple Earnings today at 1:00 PM, and about 14 years ago you said that you would, you know, demolish it and sell it back to shareholders. Do you regret saying that, seeing as though it's now trading at 400 dollars, and Dell is trading at around the price Apple was trading then, 16 dollars, and the Apple market cap is 400 billion, making it the most valuable company in the world?
>> Well, that's a great question and a great opprotuinity for me to clarify what I said. laughter thank you, Alexia. Let me start by saying that our stock has gone up 16,000 percent since it went public, so not feeling too bad about that. But the question that was asked to me was what would I do if I was Apple's CEO. And --
>> And the time frame being -- ?
>> It was 1997.
>> Yeah.
>> By the way, were any of you there, in the Gardner symposium when I was asked? But it, here's the important thing. My first two answers to the question were "I really don't want to answer that question. Why don't you give me another question?"
>> Hey, Rick, take notes.
>> But what I, the meaning of my answer is that I am the CEO of Dell. I don't think about being the CEO of any other company, and I would never imagine myself -- I'm not a CEO for hire, okay? And so if you ask me what would I do if I was the CEO of any company, it's just not something I really think about. And so my answer was largely misconstrued as you have stated, but you know, certainly have tremendous respect for Apple. They've done incredibly well, and obviously Steve will be missed and was a friend, and got to know Steve. I met Steve when I was 16 years old. And anyway --
>> How did you meet him?
>> Steve came to Houston, Texas, to an Apple user group meeting.
>> And you were there with your Apple II?
>> I was there with my Apple II.
>> So your answer is basically you couldn't imagine yourself being CEO of another company, so whatever company --
>> I'm not a, I'm not a CEO for hire. You know, I am Michael Dell, the founder of Dell. So I don't think about being CEO of another company.
>> So if someone had asked you the same question about McDonald's you would have said, "Sell it back to shareholders?"
>> You know, I would've said, "Why don't you give me another question?" But the, which is what I said the first two times I answered the question.
>> No, that, I mean it --
>> I got, I got frustrated -- I got frustrated the first time and you know, tried to shut --
>> In Michael, in Michael's defense --
>> -- tried to shut --
>> Yeah.
>> -- the question down.
>> When I was part of the team that was running Wired at that very time, we felt that Apple was over, and we were very sad about it, and so we created a cover with the Apple logo and a crown of thorns, and one word underneath it: "Pray." laughter And so that was pretty much the vibe in 1997 about Apple.
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