CNBC Exclusive: CNBC Transcript: Dell Inc. Chairman & CEO Michael Dell Speaks with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo Today on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street"
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Dell Inc. Chairman & CEO Michael Dell on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" today, Friday, September 13th at 9:10AM ET. Following is a link to the interview on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000199005. The remainder of the interview will air on CNBC's "Closing Bell" (3-5PM ET) today.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
MARIA BARTIROMO: JOINING US RIGHT NOW, THE MAN IN CHARGE, MICHAEL DELL, THE WINNER OF THIS CONTENTIOUS BATTLE, FOUNDER OF DELL. MICHAEL, GOOD TO HAVE YOU ON THE PROGRAM. CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU.
MICHAEL DELL: THANK YOU, MARIA. GOOD MORNING TO YOU AS WELL.
BARTIROMO: IT WAS A LONG-FOUGHT BATTLE UP AGAINST SOME PRETTY BIG SHAREHOLDERS OUT THERE – CARL ICAHN. TELL ME HOW THIS CHANGES DELL GOING FORWARD.
DELL: WE ARE REALLY FOCUSED ON OUR CUSTOMERS AND BUILDING OUT END-TO-END SOLUTIONS. THERE ARE FIVE AREAS WE'RE GOING TO INVEST IN. THE FIRST IS REALLY ENHANCING THE ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS AND SERVICES CAPABILITY, INVESTING IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AND CONTINUING THE ACQUISITIONS THAT DELL HAS BEEN DOING FOR THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS, CONTINUING TO GROW THAT CAPABILITY. THE SECOND AREA IS EXPANDING OUR SALES CAPACITY AND OUR CHANNEL PARTNERSHIPS THROUGH OUR PARTNER DIRECT PROGRAM. WE'RE GOING TO REACH MORE CUSTOMERS AND INVEST THERE AS WELL. THE THIRD AREA IS EMERGING MARKETS. THIS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A GROWTH AREA FOR DELL, THE NEXT BILLION CUSTOMERS ARE GOING TO COME FROM THESE MARKETS AND WE'RE EXTENDING OUR REACH THERE. THE FOURTH IS REALLY THE PC AND TABLETS AND THIS NEW AREA OF WHAT WE CALL CLOUD CLIENT COMPUTING, THE VIRTUAL PC. DELL HAS ACTUALLY BEEN THE ONLY COMPANY IN OUR SPACE IN THE LAST TWO QUARTERS TO GROW BOTH YEAR OVER YEAR AND SEQUENTIALLY IN SHARE. AND THEN, FINALLY, WE'RE MAKING INVESTMENTS TO ENHANCE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE. SO AGAIN, IT'S REALLY ABOUT CHANGING OUR FOCUS FROM A QUARTERLY FOCUS TO MORE OF A LONGER TERM, FIVE-YEAR, TEN-YEAR FOCUS, DOUBLING DOWN ON THE INVESTMENTS THAT ARE REALLY NEEDED FOR THIS COMPANY TO BE ABLE TO CONTINUE TO SERVE THE TENS OF MILLIONS OF CUSTOMERS THAT WE'RE HONORED TO SERVE EVERY DAY.
BARTIROMO: REALLY FASCINATING. MICHAEL, YOU MENTIONED A NUMBER OF THINGS THAT PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT TODAY AND THAT IS ENTERPRISE, NUMBER ONE, WHICH YOU'VE SPOKEN A LOT ABOUT FOR DELL, EVEN THOUGH MOST PEOPLE LOOK AT THIS COMPANY AS A PC COMPANY. YOU MENTIONED PCs. I WANT TO GET INTO THAT AS WELL MOBILITY. BUT LETS START ON PCs. WE ALL KNOW THAT MOBILITY HAS PUT THE PC BUSINESS IN A VERY DIFFERENT PLACE THAN IT WAS WHEN YOU FOUNDED THIS COMPANY. PC SALES ARE DECLINING, PC SALES AT DELL HAVE DECLINED – HAVE BEEN SHRINKING RATHER IN THE LAST THREE YEARS. THEY'RE EXPECTED TO BE DOWN 7% THIS YEAR, GLOBAL PCs AS WELL AS THE FOLLOWING YEAR. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO STAY IN THAT LEADERSHIP POSITION AND THRIVE WHEN IN FACT THIS IS AN INDUSTRY THAT IS GETTING ITS LUNCH EATEN BY MOBILITY AND DEVICES?
DELL: WE THINK THE PC AND TABLETS AND VIRTUAL CLIENTS ACTUALLY CONTINUE TO HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT ROLE IN PRODUCTIVITY. YOU KNOW, CONSOLIDATING INDUSTRIES, LEADING COMPANIES CAN DO JUST FINE. IF YOU TAKE A LOOK AT DELL'S REVENUES IN OUR CLIENT BUSINESS, WE ACTUALLY HAVE, YOU KNOW, VERY NICE SCALE IN THAT BUSINESS. WE ARE MUCH MORE OF A COMMERCIAL THAN CONSUMER, ALTHOUGH WE'RE GROWING OUR CONSUMER PC BUSINESS AS WELL. AGAIN, WE'RE THE ONLY ONES THAT ARE GROWING SHARE AT LEAST FOR THE MOMENT. I THINK THE MORE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT THE CLIENT DEVICE IS PART OF THE END-TO-END SOLUTION AND IT'S A GREAT WAY FOR US TO INTRODUCE OURSELVES TO MANY CUSTOMERS, LEADING INTO THE ENTERPRISE. YOU KNOW, DELL NOW HAS NUMBER ONE SHARE IN SERVERS, IN NORTH AMERICA, IN APJ. AND SOON THE WORLD. AND DELL IS SHIPPING MORE TERABYTES OF STORAGE THAN ANY COMPANY ON THE PLANET. SO WE'VE USED THIS FOUNDATIONAL BUSINESS OF CLIENT COMPUTING AND EXTENDED THAT INTO THE DATA CENTER, INTO SERVICES, INTO SOFTWARE, SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT, SECURITY. TODAY DELL IS A VERY DIFFERENT COMPANY THAN IT WAS FIVE YEARS AGO. WE HAVE A $21 BILLION ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE AND SOLUTIONS BUSINESS THAT, YOU KNOW, HAS GROWN FROM ROUGHLY $10 BILLION JUST FIVE OR SIX YEARS AGO. QUITE EXCITED ABOUT OUR FUTURE. THE OPPORTUNITY TO INVEST, TO REALLY FOCUS ON OUR CUSTOMERS, GET ALL THIS DISTRACTION BEHIND US. COULDN'T BE MORE EXCITED, MARIA.
BARTIROMO: YEAH, WHAT ABOUT THE DISTRACTION? YOU KNOW, A NUMBER OF PEOPLE I SPOKE WITH WERE SAYING LOOK, THIS HAS BEEN SUCH A DISASTER THESE LAST SEVERAL MONTHS. YOU KNOW, THIS PUBLIC FIGHT WITH CARL ICAHN AND SOUTH EASTERN AND T-ROWE. DID THAT TAKE AWAY FROM THE ACTUAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND DEMAND, MICHAEL? BECAUSE I THINK SOME CUSTOMERS WERE WORRIED AND IN THE PROCESS THEY'RE NOT GOING TO WAIT AROUND WHILE THIS FIGHT IS GOING ON. THEY'RE GOING TO MOVE TO YOUR COMPETITOR. SO HOW MUCH OF AN ISSUE WAS THIS PUBLIC BATTLE IN TERMS OF IMPACTING BUSINESS?
DELL: LET ME TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO THANK OUR CUSTOMERS FOR NOT BEING TOO DISTRACTED BY IT. THERE WAS SOME DISTRACTION FOR SURE. THE TEAM AT DELL DID A GREAT JOB OF STAYING VERY, VERY FOCUSED. AND YOU KNOW, IN THE LAST QUARTER, OUR ENTERPRISE SOLUTION SERVICE BUSINESS GREW 9%. ONE OF OUR PRINCIPAL COMPETITORS ALSO HAD A 9% CHANGE IN THEIR BUSINESS, EXCEPT IN THEIR CASE IT WAS NEGATIVE. SO WE'RE PLAYING OFFENSE, WE'RE ON THE ATTACK, WE'RE GROWING, EXPANDING OUR SHARE. THIS IS THE DELL THAT MANY OF YOU ARE VERY, VERY FAMILIAR WITH AND YOU'RE GOING TO SEE IT IN ALL OF ITS GLORY.
BARTIROMO: ABSOLUTELY. AND MICHAEL, LET ME ASK YOU ABOUT THAT ENTERPRISE BUSINESS. BECAUSE YOU SAID REVAMPING THE ENTERPRISE COMPUTING SERVICES BUSINESS IN THE MOLD OF IBM IS A COMPLEX UNDERTAKING AND ITS BEST PERFORMED OUTSIDE OF THE SPOTLIGHT. I GET THAT. DOING IT AS A PRIVATE COMPANY. BUT WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE ACTUAL ENTERPRISE BUSINESS, WE ALL KNOW IBM IS THE LEADER HERE AND IBM IS EVEN STRUGGLING. JUST RECENTLY THE CIA PUTS OUT A REQUEST FOR A PROPOSAL – TRYING TO GET PROPOSALS IN TERMS OF HOW TO MODERNIZE THE CIA'S BUSINESS. EVERYBODY PUTS THEIR PROPOSAL ON THE TABLE. WHO DID THEY CHOOSE? NOT IBM. AMAZON WEB SERVICES. HOW COMPETITIVE AND TOUGH IS AMAZON AS A COMPETITOR RIGHT NOW FOR YOU?
DELL: SURE. YOU KNOW, THIS IS A VERY LARGE INDUSTRY SPACE. WE JUST MIGRATED THE SINGAPORE STOCK EXCHANGE OFF OF THEIR MAIN FRAME, REWROTE THEIR APPLICATIONS AND PUT IT ON AN OPEN INDUSTRY STANDARD PLATFORM POWERED BY DELL. WE'VE DONE 1,300 OF THESE MAIN FRAME MIGRATIONS. THE THING YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER ABOUT OUR SPACE IS THIS IS A $3 TRILLION INDUSTRY THAT'S GOING TO BE A $6 TRILLION INDUSTRY. DELL TODAY HAS ROUGHLY 2% OF THE $3 TRILLION, BUT NOBODY HAS 4% OR 5%. SO IT'S INCREDIBLY DISBPERSED, LARGE NUMBER OF COMPANIES. YOU KNOW, WE'RE PROVIDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A LOT OF THE CLOUD COMPANIES THAT ARE OUT THERE. YOU KNOW, DELL IS THE LEADING PROVIDER OF THE SERVERS, THE STORAGE, THE NETWORKING THAT GO INTO ALL THESE CLOUDS THAT ARE BEING BUILT AROUND THE WORLD. THAT'S A FANTASTIC BUSINESS FOR US, AS WELL AS BEING ABLE TO BRING NEWS SERVICES FOR COMPANIES THAT WANT TO BUILD THEIR OWN PRIVATE CLOUDS, WHICH IS REALLY THE PREDOMINANT TREND THAT WE'RE SEEING. WE'VE ALSO DONE A LOT TO BRING THESE TECHNOLOGIES TOGETHER. WE INTRODUCED A REVOLUTIONARY PRODUCT A FEW MONTHS AGO CALLED POWER EDGE VERTEX, WHICH BRINGS TOGETHER NETWORKING, STORAGE SERVER ALL INTO ONE EASY TO DEPLOY PLATFORM THAT'S ESSENTIALLY A CLOUD IN A BOX. SERVICE PROVIDERS, CLOUD SYSTEMS COMPANIES, ALL KINDS OF INDEPENDENT SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS, LARGE COMPANIES, SMALL COMPANIES ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE ADOPTING THIS PLATFORM VERY RAPIDLY.
BARTIROMO: FAIR ENOUGH, BUT AT THE SAME TIME HERE WE ARE TALKING ON A DAY THAT TWITTER IS GOING PUBLIC AND OF COURSE – ANNOUNCING IT IS GOING PUBLIC -- AND OF COURSE TWITTER BENEFITING FROM THIS HUGE SURGE IN MOBILITY. THAT'S WHAT EVERYONE'S FOCUSED ON. CHANGING SO MANY INDUSTRIES. WHERE'S YOUR MOBILE PRODUCT? WHERE IS YOUR FOOTPRINT IN MOBILITY?
DELL: WELL YOU KNOW, TWITTER'S A GREAT CUSTOMER. IT IS A GREAT EXAMPLE, MARIA. EVERY TIME A NEW MOBILE COMPANY GETS BORN, THEY NEED SERVERS AND INFRASTRUCTURE AND STORAGE AND COMPANIES NEED TO BE ABLE TO PROTECT AND SECURE THEIR DATA ON THESE MOBILE DEVICES. SO WHAT WE'RE DOING AT DELL IS HELPING OUR CUSTOMERS ACCESS THIS INFORMATION IN A SECURE WAY, IN A PROTECTED WAY AND POWERING THOSE CLOUDS THAT ARE BEING FUELED BY THIS ENORMOUS EXPLOSION OF MOBILE DEVICES. AND FOR SURE DELL WILL PARTICIPATE IN TABLETS AND ALL SORTS OF CLIENT DEVICES. WE'RE NOT GETTING IN THE MOBILE PHONE BUSINESS. WE DO RESELL SOME OTHER LEADING MOBILE PHONE PRODUCTS, BUT REALLY OUR MAIN BUSINESS IS HELPING OUR CUSTOMERS SECURE, PROTECT THEIR DATA AND ACCESS IT FROM ANY DEVICE THEY WANT TO.
BARTIROMO: MICHAEL, WE'RE GOING TO LEAVE IT HERE FOR THE LIVE PORTION OF THIS INTERVIEW, BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT TO FOCUS ON NOW IS YOUR LEGACY. BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE THOUGHT YOU WERE EVER GOING TO GIVE UP THIS FIGHT. YOUR NAME IS ON THE DOOR. WE'LL TALK ABOUT THAT ON "CLOSING BELL." FOR NOW THOUGH MICHAEL, STAY RIGHT THERE. BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO CONTINUE OUR CONVERSATION FOR "CLOSING BELL." I'LL SEND IT BACK TO CARL THOUGH AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE. THANKS, MICHAEL.
DELL: THANK YOU.
About CNBC:
With CNBC in the U.S., CNBC in Asia Pacific, CNBC in Europe, Middle East and Africa, CNBC World and CNBC HD , CNBC is the recognized world leader in business news and provides real-time financial market coverage and business information to approximately 390 million homes worldwide, including more than 100 million households in the United States and Canada. CNBC also provides daily business updates to 400 million households across China. The network's 16 live hours a day of business programming in North America (weekdays from 4:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. ET) is produced at CNBC's global headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and includes reports from CNBC News bureaus worldwide.
CNBC also has a vast portfolio of digital products which deliver real-time financial market news and information across a variety of platforms. These include CNBC.com, the online destination for global business; CNBC PRO, the premium, integrated desktop/mobile service that provides real-time global market data and live access to CNBC global programming; and a suite of CNBC Mobile products including the CNBC Real-Time iPhone and iPad Apps.
Members of the media can receive more information about CNBC and its programming on the NBC Universal Media Village Web site athttp://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/networks/cnbc/