Dell is founder and chief executive officer of Dell Technologies. The Round Rock, Texas-based company had revenue of $91 billion in the year to Feb. 1, 2019 from the sale of PCs, servers and security software. The billionaire's family office, MSD Capital, has offices in New York, Santa Monica and West Palm Beach.
Michael Dell's net worth of $31.7B can buy ...
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The majority of Dell's fortune is derived from his stake in Dell Technologies, a publicly traded computer products maker. Dell owns about 52% of the company as of Dec. 11, 2019, according to a regulatory filing, including 33 million shares held by his wife.
The net value of his options in the company are based on the December regulatory filing.
The value of his cash investments is based on dividends from Dell Technologies as well as insider transactions, taxes, market performance and donations. The investments of his family office MSD Capital are included with cash and other assets.
Todd Fogarty, a spokesman for Dell, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
The Houston-born technology titan enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin in 1983 intending to study biology and pursue a career as a doctor. He was soon sidetracked selling computers. Armed with $1,000 in start-up money, Dell began selling upgraded personal computers and components to customers on and off campus from his freshman dorm.
He sold shares in a 1988 initial public offering, and eight years later his stake was valued at more than $1 billion. He created the investment firm MSD Capital in 1998 to oversee his family's growing fortune. He stepped down as CEO of Dell in 2004 but returned to the top spot three years later, after shrinking sales and an accounting scandal prompted the company's board to request his return. Since then, Dell has been expanding the company's product lines beyond PCs and laptops into servers, computer storage and networking products.
The billionaire took the business private in 2013. He agreed to buy EMC Corp. for about $67 billion in the largest technology acquisition ever in October 2015. Dell was relisted on the New York Stock Exchange at the end of 2018.
Most of his charitable giving is done through the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which aims to improve the lives of children living in poverty around the world.