Dell to buy Alienware

Dell Inc. plans to acquire Alienware Corp., a manufacturer of high-performance desktop, notebook, media center, servers and professional systems. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

While Miami-based Alienware is known for its gaming and multimedia systems, the company has a significant government business. Last summer, Alienware opened a sales office in Washington dedicated to government clients.

The new office was in response to Alienware's growth in the government space and emerging reputation for developing government-specific computer systems, company officials said last year.

The Washington office features a variety of product offerings that include high-performance and COTS-based MJ-12 workstations, MJ-12m 7700 mobile systems, and Sentia notebooks, as well as Hivemind rack servers

Alienware's customers include the Defense Department, the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, NASA and the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency.

Dell said Alienware will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary and will maintain its own product development, product marketing, sales, technical support and other operations as well as brand. The management and founders of Alienware will continue to operate the company as a standalone unit of Dell.

Dell of Round Rock, Texas, as 55,200 employees and had annual sales of $55.9 billion in fiscal 2005.

The company ranks No. 8 on Washington Technology's 2005 Top 100 list of federal prime contractors.