Michael Dell Surprise: He's Buying Dell Stock

Does Michael Dell know something we don't?

On June 27, June 30, and July 1, Mr. Dell, the chairman and CEO of the company bearing his name, acquired a total of just over 4.5 million shares in the company.

The total spent was just a few dollars shy of $100 million. Actually, it was just $288,402 shy of $100 million.

This isn't something that happens very often. In fact, according to a Dow Jones Newswire report, the last time Dell-the-man purchased Dell-the-company's stock was in May. Of 2006. Before that, you'd have to go back 14 years to find him a buyer of his company's shares.

So why the interest in his company's shares? What does Dell-the-man know that we don't know?

Maybe it's because of the success of Dell-the-company's channel. The company got its latest bout of channel religion late last year just before it acquired the channel-friendly storage vendor EqualLogic.

According to many solution providers, Dell-the-company has become a much more channel-savvy, channel-friendly place. In fact, a couple of solution providers who, after the acquisition called Dell-the-company names that would make the recently-departed George Carlin blush, have actually started giving Dell-the-company another look after seeing how some of their peers work with the vendor.

Yeah, I suppose Dell-the-man may be buying shares in his company now just because the shares are a relative bargain in the $22 area after falling from a peak of $30.60 in late October.

So, does Dell-the-man smell a bargain? Or does he smell the channel?