We'll Use Dell to Help Identify Microsoft, HP at the Morgue

Dell probably will not make hardware for Microsoft. If it does, it will likely fail. But, success or failure of potential future endeavors aside, how bad have things become when Microsoft can blame hardware partners for its ineptitude? If Microsoft is attempting to gain some leverage in a partnership here, we'll watch a classic case of the blind leading the blind unfold.

Number Three: Does Meg Whitman at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) have any respect for her shareholders or her company's customers?

I assume Whitman was the brainchild of, or at least stamped, this idiotic statement from HP on the Dell news:

Dell has a very tough road ahead. The company faces an extended period of uncertainty and transition that will not be good for its customers.

With a significant debt load, Dell's ability to invest in new products and services will be extremely limited. Leveraged buyouts tend to leave existing customers and innovation at the curb. We believe Dell's customers will now be eager to explore alternatives, and HP plans to take full advantage of that opportunity.

The more I talk with founders and CEOs of new and old startups, the more I realize what an awful state most of blue-chip tech is in.

>>Read "Cisco Should Pick Off Alcatel-Lucent" on TheStreet

That's not a dig at Dell. That's a lame admission by HP that it's got nothing. That it hasn't done its job well. If things are so awful at Dell -- and they are -- why does HP have to release a statement that essentially says, Oh, by the way, we're here!. Aren't the company's 300,000 employees doing a good enough job getting the word out?

Pitiful. This whole thing -- Dell, Microsoft, HP. Just pitiful.

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--Written by Rocco Pendola in Santa Monica, Calif.

Rocco Pendola is TheStreet's Director of Social Media. Pendola's daily contributions to TheStreet frequently appear on CNBC and at various top online properties, such as Forbes.

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