For decades dell was the market's darling. Since Michael Dell founded the company in his University of Texas dorm room in 1984, the company was loved by investors, analysts and business journalists. But for the last two years, Dell's been in serious strife and it's troubles this week went from bad to worse when it announced it had found irregularities and signs of misconduct in its accounting. As a result, Dell won't file its annual report on time this year.
More on this from Forbes.
For the past three quarters, Dell has already missed filing deadlines because of an internal accounting probe underway internally and by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
In the meantime, Dell has now slapped a temporary ban on its directors and managers from trading Dell shares.
While analysts say it should come as no surprise following the turnover of executives there, including its CEO and CFO, Dell's accounting shenanigans might only be the tip of the iceberg.
The big problem for Dell is the fundamental sea change that's now happening in the PC market. The industry is now struggling because of slow growth and intense price competition. And Dell is losing ground to HP which has the advantage of a broader revenue base from its software, services and printer businesses.
All up, that means Michael Dell might have an impossible task ahead of him, says 24/7 editor Douglas McIntyre at Investopedia:
"As Michael Dell returns as CEO, he has said he will fix the company that he founded. But, he is trying to do so in a market where his company is no longer the low-cost provider and at a time when PC sales are not racing forward. He has problems, and they just may prove insurmountable."
The problem hitting Dell is something I have described as the "winner's curse". Companies get locked into a successful way of doing things and don't see the problems creeping up on them. It happens to politicians too. I elaborate on that in my piece here.
So what should investors do? Wait until the stock slides to $15-$17 says Georges Yared from Yared Investment Research.
no comment untill now