Silicon Valley

What Happened To Dell?

Since its 1984 launch in Michael Dell's dorm , Dell has evolved from a PC maker to a $90 billion in revenue and services in storage, servers, cloud infrastructure and data security. Since then, CEO, Michael Dell has taken his company public, private and then public again as it tried to keep up with changing consumer and business customer needs. Dell's first IPO happened in 1988 when “Dell Computer Corp.” went public at $8.50 a share with a market capitalization of $85 million. In 1992, Michael Dell became the youngest Fortune 500 CEO at 27. By 2001, Dell had overtaken Compaq as the world’s largest PC maker. But by 2013, demand for PCs stalled as tablets and smartphones became more popular. Later that year, Michael Dell took the company private. In 2015, Dell purchased data storage company EMC, a deal that still stands as the largest technology acquisition of all time. In 2018, Dell returned to the public markets as Dell Technologies.

The Rise Of Open-Source Software

Open-source software powers nearly all the world’s major companies. This software is freely available, and is developed collaboratively, maintained by a broad network that includes everyone from unpaid volunteers to employees at competing tech companies. Here’s how giving away software for free has proven to be a viable business model.

Google and YouTube moderators speak out

Google is known for being one of the best places to work. But for the many content moderators working for Google and YouTube, the job is traumatic. And even the best workplace conditions don’t make up for the fact that many moderators suffer long term psychological consequences of doing this job. The Verge traveled to Washington, DC and Austin, TX to speak to a former full time google moderator and to current YouTube contract moderators to see how their experiences compare. Following his investigations on Facebook, The Verge’s Casey Newton reports on the working conditions and side effects of scrubbing the internet of “violent extremism” content at Google and YouTube. You can read the full exclusive here: http://bit.ly/2PqraAV