Icahn Seen as Nothing Compared With Dell Turnaround

When Michael Dell took his company public in 1988, the personal-computer maker’s biggest competitors were International Business Machines Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and Gateway 2000. The headstrong founder was later quoted joking that his daughter’s first words were to “kill IBM” and his other rivals.

A quarter century later, as Dell takes his Round Rock, Texas-based company private in a $24.9 billion transaction following shareholder approval yesterday, the landscape has shifted. The PC business is dwindling, leaving Dell Inc. out of step with a technology world moving to smartphones and tablets dominated by companies including Apple Inc. and Google Inc.