Michael Dell Doubles Back

And Dell needs to revamp its image, which has been bruised by things like poor customer service issues and the highly publicized recall of more than 4 million Sony (SNE) batteries used in its notebooks.

"It's going to be a longer haul then people realize," says Think Equity Partners analyst Eric Ross, who has a sell rating on Dell shares. "Certainly it's not going to happen in the first half of the year just because Dell is back," he said.

In a statement Wednesday, Michael Dell said he was enthusiastic about new initiatives undertaken by the company, such as Dell 2.0, "which includes our plan to provide the best customer experience, build a strong global services business and ensure our products deliver the best long-term customer value."

In addition to taking over as CEO, Dell will remain chairman.

"Kevin has been a great business partner and friend," Dell said in a statement. "He has made significant contributions to our business over the past 10 years. I wish him success in the future."

Meanwhile, Wednesday's warning that Dell's revenue and EPS will fall short of analyst expectations marks the third time in the past four quarters that Dell has negatively preannounced financial results.

While it's impossible to know the magnitude of Dell's miss, given the short sentence it devoted to the matter in its announcement, Think Equity's Ross reckons it could be as much as several pennies of EPS.

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