Michael Dell Doubles Back

Updated from 6:11 p.m. EST

With its business struggling, Dell(DELL) founder Michael Dell will jump back in the saddle as the PC maker's chief executive.

In an announcement after Wednesday's market close, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell announced that Kevin Rollins has resigned his duties as CEO and board member.

Shares of Dell climbed nearly 4% in recent after-hours trading to $25.14.

Dell also said it expects fourth-quarter results to be below the average Wall Street estimates, which call for $15.3 billion in sales with EPS of 32 cents.

"The board believes that Michael's vision and leadership are critical to building Dell's leadership in the technology industry for the long term, said Samuel Nunn, presiding director of Dell's board.

"There is no better person in the world to run Dell at this time than the man who created the Direct Model and who has built this company over the last 23 years," Nunn said.

The changing of the guard comes after a difficult year for Dell, in which sales have slowed and rival Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) stole its spot as the world's No. 1 PC maker.

Not long ago, Dell was regularly growing its quarterly sales by 15% or more. The latest sales expectations, which Dell now says it will miss, would have entailed essentially flat revenue growth year over year.