Dell is expanding their online services, delving into e-mail services with a recent acquisition. For $155 million in cash, Dell is adding MessageOne to their portfolio, with the intention of adding on to their services for enterprise-class customers. It is another example of large businesses expanding not by new development, but by acquiring smaller companies looking to sell or struggling to stay afloat. Dell alone has acquired a total of four other companies in just recent history, marking a change (if slight) in the way they do business.
A lot of this is in response to HP, who already has a suite of offerings for larger companies that make them a more attractive option. Overall Dell has seen many changes in the past five years, many of them good for the company, such as abandoning the concept of not selling in retail and expanding their online sales.