For me this was really unexpected: Dell bought Alienware! Here are some sections from PCWorld’s article on the acquisition. The article makes some interesting points that AMD now has “a foothold in Dell.”

Dell has agreed to purchase high-performance PC vendor Alienware, the two companies announced Wednesday.

The acquisition will “complement Dell’s own line of high-performance computers,” while giving the Alienware products the benefits of Dell’s “supply chain and operational efficiencies,” the companies said in a statement.

The purchase, which was rumored for weeks, is expected to clear regulatory requirements in 30 to 60 days. Ultimately, the acquisition will shorten the time it takes for customers to get their hands on Alienware’s sleek gaming workstations and laptops.

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One interesting side-effect of this structure is that it will give microprocessor vendor Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) a foothold in Dell, which has to date resisted selling systems based on AMD’s chips. A number of Alienware’s PCs, including its Aurora and ALX series systems, are built with AMD processors.

[...]

Industry observers have speculated that Dell’s tight relationship with AMD rival Intel has kept the PC maker from selling AMD’s chips. But according to a Dell spokesman, Alienware will be free to continue to sell whichever processors it chooses. “That’s the kind of decision that they make on their own,” the spokesman said.