Bringing Michael Dell back to run the company he founded seems to be making things worse.

Last week, Dell (DELL) said it would have to cut more costs and even made the ludicrous suggestion that employees take vacation without pay. As far as anyone knows, Mr. Dell has the money to take that week off. The people who work for him probably don’t.

Dell (DELL) apparently does not have much new to bring in buyers during the holiday season. Since there will be a buyers’ strike due to the recession, getting people to step up to buy PCs will be hard anyway. Having a spectacular and inexpensive product line may be the only way around that.

According to The Wall Street Journal. "The company has lagged rivals this holiday season in releasing new notebook personal computers, which make up the biggest segment of the consumer market." It is also going to be late to market with its portable music player.

In the face of competition from HP (HPQ), Apple (AAPL), Lenovo, and Acer, being late is being dead.

Michael Dell was brought back to the company with great fanfare, but he has delivered nothing that would cheer shareholders beyond cost cuts. Dell is beginning to look more like tech also-ran Sun (JAVA) than industry leader HP. Over the last year, HP’s shares are off less than 30%. Dell’s are off 55%.

After nearly two years at the helm, results show that Dell is the wrong man for the Dell job. It is time for the board to get someone else before matters get worse.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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