Dell investors withhold votes for CEO in election

CALIFORNIA, USA: Michael Dell, founder of computer maker Dell Inc, was reelected to his company's board this month with more than a quarter of the votes withholding support for his election, reflecting investor displeasure with his tenure as CEO.

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Dell disclosed in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that 25.1 percent of the votes, or 377.8 million of 1.5 billion votes, withheld their support for the chief executive and chairman in a company annual meeting on Aug 12.

Michael Dell received the lowest number of votes in favor of his election of all 11 directors reelected.

Dell, once the world's largest personal computer vendor, ranks No. 3 behind Hewlett-Packard Co and Acer Inc. The company has ceded market share rather than engage in price wars that would further pinch margins.

Its shares have fallen more than 13 percent in the last year while the Nasdaq has risen more than 14 percent in that period.

The company has made a mix of major and small acquisitions in the last year as it tries to diversify beyond personal computers. This week it said it had agreed to pay $1.15 billion to buy 3PAR Inc, a data storage company