Michael Dell, 40. announced that he will be stepping down later this year as CEO of Round Rock-based Dell, Inc. . Kevin Rollins, Mr. Dell’s longtime partner in running Dell Inc., will take over as CEO of the computer company in mid-July while Mr. Dell will remain chairman of the board. This new arrangement is similar to the one that Microsoft Corp adopted in 2000, when Bill Gates became chairman and chief software architect and Steve Ballmer took over as CEO. Mr. Dell founded Dell in May 1984 when he was a 19-year-old just finishing his freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin. When the company went public four years later, Mr. Dell kept the titles of chairman and CEO.

As one would expect, the LA Times and the NY Times are all over the Walt Disney Company Board’s decision to remove Michael Eisner as chairman of Disney’s board, although he will remain as CEO for the time being. However, as usual, the Wall Street Journal‘s ($) coverage of the developments here, here and here is far superior.
What is ironic about this development is that it was spurred by Comcast‘s lowball takeover bid for Disney, which Mr. Eisner properly opposes and which has not gone well for Comcast (its stock price is down 10% since the takeover bid was announced). The bottom line is that the Disney board’s failure to develop a succession strategy for top management is coming back to haunt them at a critical time for Disney.