????電腦制造商戴爾公司（Dell）是否正面臨轉(zhuǎn)折點？創(chuàng)始人邁克爾?戴爾逐步把公司發(fā)展成了一家大型企業(yè)。五年前他重回公司一線掌舵，而現(xiàn)在他已做好了準備，即將再次出擊。公司重振旗鼓效果如何，未來數(shù)月非常關鍵。

????戴爾股票在1995年到2000年初的幾年時間里經(jīng)歷了輝煌的增長，即使在科技板塊也名列前茅。公司股價上漲近9倍，達到每股59美元。互聯(lián)網(wǎng)泡沫破裂后，2000年底戴爾公司股價跌至16美元。由于戴爾品牌在個人電腦市場仍有很強實力，公司股價在接下來的四年里反彈至42美元。這四年里，戴爾在高效生產(chǎn)和組裝個人定制化電腦方面獲得了很高聲譽，并成為市場領導者。

????但是，2005年邁克爾?戴爾不再擔任首席執(zhí)行官職務后，公司股價又開始下滑，2006年初股價已跌至20美元以下。惠普公司（Hewlett-Packard）和宏基（Acer）等中國制造商開始在筆記本領域展開更激烈的競爭。邁克爾?戴爾2007年重返公司擔任首席執(zhí)行官，誓言重振公司。

????但惠普公司的切身經(jīng)歷顯示，重振一個科技巨頭并非易事，可能需要多年的努力。2009年2月，經(jīng)濟大蕭條環(huán)境使得戴爾股票跌至8美元。此后，公司股價反彈到15美元上下，并在該水平徘徊數(shù)年。與此同時，上網(wǎng)本以及后來的iPad等平板電腦成為熱門產(chǎn)品，個人電腦和筆記本電腦的增速因此放慢。似乎突然之間，風云變幻的電腦業(yè)界已經(jīng)進入了“后個人電腦世界”，讓曾經(jīng)參與開創(chuàng)現(xiàn)代個人電腦時代的戴爾公司措手不及。

????但今年，戴爾公司股票釋放出的訊息表明，投資者已經(jīng)重拾對戴爾的信心。2月份，戴爾股價攀升至18.33美元，這意味著從年初到2月份它的股價已經(jīng)上漲了25%。其中主要原因是：戴爾減少了對個人電腦和筆記本銷售的依賴，而是將重心轉(zhuǎn)向服務、服務器和存儲器銷售，而且這些舉措已開始奏效。與此同時，戴爾還努力推出更高端的個人電腦產(chǎn)品，避免與蘋果公司（Apple）的iPad和亞馬遜公司（Amazon）的Kindle Fires平板電腦直接競爭。

????過去的六個財年中，個人電腦和筆記本收益占戴爾總收益的份額從65%下降至54%。而同期服務器業(yè)務占總收益的百分比已經(jīng)從10%增長到了13%。為公司客戶提供咨詢和處理IT事務的服務部門為總收益的貢獻比例則從8%上升到了13%，其中一部分原因是戴爾收購的若干公司，比如以39億美元收購的IT服務公司Perot Systems，以及沒有透露收購價格的云計算公司Boomi。

????過去幾個月內(nèi)，戴爾加快了在服務領域的收購步伐。2月份，戴爾收購了備份軟件供應商AppAssure公司。僅一個月后，戴爾又收購了網(wǎng)絡安全企業(yè)Sonicwall。上周，有傳聞顯示，戴爾正準備出價3.75億美元收購瘦客戶端系統(tǒng)制造商Wyse公司，以及另一家IT服務公司Clerity Solutions，收購價預計為10億美元。

????這些舉措相當令人振奮，說明戴爾公司正把重點轉(zhuǎn)向自身增長領域。上一財年，戴爾公司個人電腦銷售額下跌了4%，而筆記本和平板電腦銷售額上漲了1%。同時，服務器銷售額增長了10%，服務部門銷售額增長了8%。

????盡管后個人電腦時代的說法甚囂塵上，但整體看來，戴爾的表現(xiàn)還算不錯。2011年最后一個季度，戴爾在個人電腦市場所占份額從一年前的11.6%上升至12.6%。而同時，惠普的份額從18.8%下降至16%，而聯(lián)想（Lenovo）的份額則從11.3%增加到了14%。

????Is Dell finally turning a corner? Five years after Michael Dell returned to lead the PC maker he founded and transformed into a colossus, Dell may actually be ready for a second act. But the next several months will be crucial in determining how strong any recovery will be.

????Between 1995 and early 2000, Dell's (DELL) stock enjoyed one of the biggest rallies -- even for the tech sector -- rising nearly 900% to $59 a share. The dot-com crash brought it back down to $16 share by the end of 2000, but the strength of its brand in the PC market helped Dell rebound to $42 over the next four years as Dell's reputation for efficient manufacturing and assembling customized PCs made it the market leader.

????But in 2005, following the departure of Michael Dell as CEO, Dell's stock began to decline again, pushing the price back down below $20 a share in early 2006. Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Chinese manufacturers such as Acer began competing harder in laptops. Michael Dell returned as CEO in 2007, vowing to revive the company.

????But as HP is learning, turning a tech giant around is a grueling process that can take years. In February 2009, the Great Recession brought Dell's stock down to $8 a share. After that, it rebounded to and hovered around the $15 mark for a few years. Meanwhile, netbooks and then the iPad and other tablets became hot items, slowing growth rates for PCs and laptops. The company that helped invent the modern PC company was suddenly living in a "post-PC world."

????But this year, the company’s stock is signaling that investors are starting to believe in Dell again. The stock rose to $18.33 a share in February, marking a 25% gain from the beginning of the year. The key reasons: Dell’s efforts to rely less on PC and laptop sales and more on services, servers and storage are working. Meanwhile, the company is pushing harder into higher-end PCs so it doesn’t have to compete with Apple’s (AAPL) iPads and Amazon’s (AMZN) Kindle Fires.

????Over the past six fiscal years, PCs and laptops have shrunk from 65% of revenue to 54%. Meanwhile, servers have gone from 10% to 13%, while the services division, which includes consulting and handling IT for companies, has risen from 8% to 13%, partly through acquisitions of companies like Perot Systems, an IT services company, for $3.9 billion and Boomi, a cloud-computing company, for an undisclosed sum.

????Over the past several months, Dell has stepped up the pace of its acquisitions in the services area. In February, it bought AppAssure, a backup software vendor. A month later it bought network-security firm Sonicwall. And in the past week, news emerged that it's buying Wyse, a maker of thin-client systems, for $375 million as well as Clerity Solutions, another IT services company for an estimated $1 billion.

????These moves are encouraging because they show Dell is focusing on its areas of growth. In its last fiscal year, PC sales fell 4% while laptop and tablet sales rose 1%. Meanwhile, sales from servers grew by 10% and sales from its services division grew by 8%.

????And despite all the talk of a post-PC era, Dell isn't doing too badly all things considered. In the last quarter of 2011, Dell's share of the PC market rose to 12.6% from 11.6% a year earlier. HP's share, meanwhile, fell to 16% from 18.8%, but Lenovo's share rose from 11.3% to 14%.