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?