Dell buys Alienware

By Steve Malone

Posted on 23 Mar 2006 at 10:41

Dell Computers has agreed to buy Alienware, the manufacturer of funky high performance computers and notebooks beloved of the gaming community. The deal, which has been doing the rounds of the blog rumour mill for the past week, was finally confirmed yesterday.

Both companies were quick to reassure customers that the Alienware brand approach, and the bling that the company is famous for, will not disappear into the Dell corporate culture.

Alienware will continue product development, product marketing, sales, technical support and other operations as well as brand development. The management and founders of Alienware will continue to operate the company as a standalone unit separate from Dell.

'Alienware has a legacy of success designing the highest-performance PCs using bleeding-edge technologies and innovative industrial design,' boasted Nelson Gonzalez, Alienware's chief executive officer. 'We believe that Alienware will realize significant advantages from Dell's world-class supply chain and operational efficiencies'.

While Dell has made strenuous efforts to produce high performance PCs for the enthusiast community with its own XPS range, there is a section of the market that will always want to shun the blue logo in favour of something a bit trendier. Dell will also have been attracted by the relatively high premium Alienware has managed to charge for its machines.

One interesting side effect of the takeover is that a Dell subsidiary will now be selling machines fitted with AMD processors.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.